Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Venison-pie
Ingredients
Directions
Season the venison with pepper, coarse sea salt, allspice, and cloves.
Flour each steak and place it in a pie dish.
Pour in ½ cup of water and cover with short crust pastry.
If the venison is very lean, add slices of ham or bacon.
For added flavor, mix bread crumbs, chopped ham, parsley, and pepper with 1 egg to form small balls and add to the pie.
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.
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Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,874 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Allspice + parsleytop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,289 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, pepper, allspice, clove, flour, ham, bread):
- Nutmegfits better
- Winter savoryfits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against venison, pepper, allspice, clove, flour, ham, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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