Name: Beef Tea and Brandy
Ingredients: 6 ounces strong beef tea; 1 ounce cream; ½ ounce brandy or 1½ ounces port wine

Why it works: Beef and tea work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 417 recipes. Both carry 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan, which smells thiamin, meat. The science ↓

Beef Tea and Brandy

Ingredients

6 ounces strong beef tea
1 ounce cream
½ ounce brandy or 1½ ounces port wine

Directions

Combine the beef tea, cream, and brandy (or port wine) in a bowl.
Stir well to mix the ingredients.
Administer this mixture twice or thrice within 24 hours.

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.

Beef + teatop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together417 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan (thiamin, meat).
Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,635 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Tea + brandytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together121 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Tea + creamtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together463 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Beef + brandytop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,000 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).