Name: Northumberland Pot Pie
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon lard; 1 cup water; a pinch of salt; 2 chopped onions; salt; pepper

Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Northumberland Pot Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Mrs. John Carr.
Cut IJ pounds of the round of beef into small pieces, add 2 chopped onions, salt and pepper. Make a pie dough with flour, water, a pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon lard, roll out thin, put in the meat, fold it up adding 1 cup water, pinch it tight, put in a pudding bag, and boil 3J hours.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

165Calories

1 gProtein

13 gFat

12 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Lard	1 tbsp (12.8g)	115
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

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.

Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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