Name: Ordinary Diet
Ingredients: 4 oz cooked meat (for men); 3 oz cooked meat (for women); ½ lb potatoes; ½ pint porter (for men above 16 years of age); 1 pint milk or 1 pint soup (if ordered)

Why it works: Potato and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,611 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Ordinary Diet

Ingredients

4 oz cooked meat (for men)
3 oz cooked meat (for women)
½ lb potatoes
½ pint porter (for men above 16 years of age)
1 pint milk or 1 pint soup (if ordered)

Directions

Serve 4 oz of cooked meat for men and 3 oz for women.
Prepare ½ lb of potatoes as desired.
For men above 16 years, serve ½ pint of porter.
If ordered, provide 1 pint of milk or soup.

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.

Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together786 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,703 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).