Name: Breakfast
Ingredients: bacon; eggs; grits; bread; butter; coffee

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Breakfast

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the bacon in a skillet until crispy.
In the same skillet, cook the eggs to your liking.
Prepare the grits according to package instructions.
Toast the bread and spread with butter.
Serve with coffee.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Bread + coffeetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together267 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + coffeetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,442 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).