Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓
Derangements of the Liver
Ingredients
Directions
Boil oatmeal or hominy porridge well and serve with milk.
Brew a cup of weak tea and serve with a slice of toast and a little butter.
Optionally, add fresh white fish or a slice of bacon with tea and toast.
In summer, include fresh ripe fruits or plain salads.
For luncheon, serve vegetable soup with bread or fish with mashed potato or fresh green vegetables.
Add lettuce or watercress as a side.
For beverages, mix claret with water or spirit with water.
In the afternoon, serve a cup of tea with thin bread and butter, a rusk, or a plain biscuit.
For dinner, serve plain soup or fish, followed by chicken, game, or tender mutton with mashed or grated potato and well-boiled green vegetables.
Finish with a plain milk pudding or stewed fruit.
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.
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + lettucetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together322 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Milk + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,668 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the lettuce
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, tea, butter, fish, bread, potato, spirit):
- Tomatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Lettucethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, tea, butter, fish, bread, potato, spirit. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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