Name: To Render Fat
Ingredients: trimmings of fat from meat; chicken fat; slice of onion (optional); bay leaf (optional); thyme (optional); marjoram (optional); sage (optional); coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); black pepper

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 ↓

To Render Fat

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the fat into small pieces or grind it using a meat chopper.
Heat the fat in a double boiler until completely melted.
Strain the melted fat through a moderately thick cloth.
To make savory fat, add seasonings like onion, bay leaf, thyme, marjoram, sage, salt, and pepper before rendering.
Carefully heat the strained fat to ensure it is free from moisture.

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).
Marjoram + sagetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together507 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,485 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, chicken, thyme, marjoram, sage, pepper):

Carrotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Shallotfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, chicken, thyme, marjoram, sage, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.