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A roast beef dinner served with mashed potatoes, peas, banana nut roll, lemon pie, and coffee.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Dinner

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Roast the beef

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Season the roast beef with salt and pepper, then roast in the oven until desired doneness.

Prepare the sides

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender, then mash with butter and salt.

  2. Heat the canned peas in a saucepan.

  3. Roll the bananas in chopped nuts.

Dessert and drink

  1. Prepare lemon pie by mixing lemon juice with sugar and filling a pie crust.

  2. Brew coffee and serve with the meal.

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.

  1. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Potato + peastop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,016 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Nuts + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together105 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Beef + coffeetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together213 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan (thiamin, meat).

  5. Peas + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,005 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Roast beef
Main protein that browns on the outside and firms up as it roasts.
Potatoes
Starch that softens when boiled and absorbs butter for a smooth, creamy mash.
Bananas
Soft fruit that adds natural sweetness and a tender texture.
Nuts
Add crunch and richness that contrast with the soft bananas.
Lemon
Provides sharp acidity that brightens the sweetness of the pie filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the lemon filling and balances its tartness.

The step that matters

Roast the beef to desired doneness. Meat keeps cooking after it leaves the oven, and overcooked muscle fibres squeeze out moisture and turn dry and tough. Checking doneness before the end and resting the meat lets juices settle.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, potato, peas, banana, nuts, sugar, coffee):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, potato, peas, banana, nuts, sugar, coffee. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.

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