Name: Bump-steak Pudding
Ingredients: beef steak; cucumber; vegetables; bread

Why it works: Beef and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,032 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Bump-steak Pudding

Ingredients

beef steak
cucumber
vegetables
bread

Directions

Prepare the beef steak by seasoning it.
Cook the beef steak until browned.
Serve with sliced cucumber and assorted vegetables.
Make a bread pudding as a side dish.

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 + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,032 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Cucumber + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together344 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Beef + cucumbertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together576 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).