Name: Potted Venison
Ingredients: 1 shoulder of mutton; 12 shallots, minced; ½ cup port wine lees; 1 teaspoon thyme, powdered; 1 teaspoon marjoram, powdered

Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Potted Venison

Ingredients

Directions

Cut open the shoulder of mutton three inches above the knuckle and three to four inches on the underside, down to the bone.
Fill the trenches with minced shallots, port wine lees, thyme, and marjoram.
Sew the skin over the filling.
Hang the meat in a dry room to season for nine days.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,225 recipes

Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).
Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,476 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Shallot + marjoramtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together287 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Shallot + port winetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together380 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Port wine + marjoramtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together160 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).