Name: Cost of Materials
Ingredients: 3 onions 0 i -- dripping; 0 milk; 1 quart 3 curry; 3 curry; 4 bread 0 1 4i potatoes 0 1 2 0 to dine eight persons; eight persons

Why it works: Onion and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,019 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cost of Materials

Ingredients

Directions

Pease Soup.
Curry and Rice.
Pease, ^ lb
Vegetables
Curry-powder and salt...
Dripping, 3 oz
Dripping, 3 oz
Rice, 1 lb.
Tapioca Pudding.
Milk, 1 quart
Curry and rice ... ...
Tapioca pudding
To dine eight persons;
average , yl. per head.

By Richmond, I. L. 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Onion + potatotop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together9,019 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Milk + potatotop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Milk + breadtop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together11,363 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Bread + potatotop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Onion + breadtop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together8,672 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, bread, potato):

Tomatobetter flavor fit
Asparagusbetter flavor fit
Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, bread, potato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).