Name: Raw Meat Diet for Diarrhcea
Ingredients: ½ pound lean raw steak; 2 teaspoons sugar; milk (as needed); brandy (to taste); pepper (to taste); coarse sea salt (to taste); bread and butter (for serving)

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Raw Meat Diet for Diarrhcea

Ingredients

Directions

Scrape the raw steak until all pulp is removed.
Add sugar and gradually mix in enough milk to achieve a smooth consistency.
Flavor with brandy and strain through a gravy strainer if needed.
For a sandwich, scrape the meat very fine, removing all fat and tendon.
Sprinkle a little sugar on the meat for children or add pepper and salt for adults.
Spread the mixture between slices of bread and butter.

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.

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 + breadtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Brandy + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,127 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,738 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).