Name: Sample Menu for Infirmary
Ingredients: 1 cup oatmeal; 2 cups milk; 4 slices bread; 4 tablespoons butter; 4 eggs; 4 cups tea; 4 cups coffee; 4 cups beef broth; 2 cups mixed vegetables

Why it works: Tea and coffee work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 259 recipes. Both carry 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan, which smells thiamin, meat. The science ↓

Sample Menu for Infirmary

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cook oatmeal according to package instructions.
Serve oatmeal with milk.
Toast bread.
Spread toast with butter.
Boil eggs to desired doneness.
Brew tea.
Brew coffee.
Heat beef broth.
Add mixed vegetables to broth.

Serve

Serve bread with coffee for supper.

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.

Tea + coffeetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan (thiamin, meat).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,202 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Oatmeal: Provides the bulk of the breakfast porridge, absorbing liquid as it cooks to a soft texture.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the toast, carrying flavour and softening the bread.
Eggs: Set firm when boiled, giving the dish protein structure and a mild, filling body.
Beef broth: Serves as the savoury cooking liquid that carries the flavour of the vegetables.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.