Name: Rye Bread with Sugar and Lard
Ingredients: 1 pail (about 2.5 liters) of water; 6 ounces of lard; 4 ounces of sugar; 6 ounces of coarse sea salt; 1/3 to 1/2 of wheat flour

Why it works: Wheat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,373 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rye Bread with Sugar and Lard

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine water, lard, sugar, and coarse sea salt.
Mix in enough wheat flour to form a straight dough, similar to wheat bread dough.
Let the dough rise until it doubles in size.
Punch down the dough, then shape it into loaves.
Bake the loaves like Vienna bread.

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.

Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Sugar + wheattop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,071 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).