Name: Venison Steaks with Port Wine Sauce
Ingredients: 3 pounds venison steaks, cut about 1 inch thick; 3 tablespoons salad oil; 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon white pepper; 1/10 teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1 teaspoon onion juice; 3 tablespoons butter; 2 tablespoons flour; ½ pint rich stock

Why it works: Pepper and onion 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 ↓

Venison Steaks with Port Wine Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, mix salad oil, coarse sea salt, white pepper, cayenne pepper, and onion juice.
Dip the venison steaks in the mixture and let them marinate in a cool place for at least 1 hour.
In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.
Add flour to the melted butter and stir until smooth and frothy.
Gradually add the rich stock, stirring continuously until well combined.

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.

Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Venison + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together957 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together32,460 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, pepper, onion, butter, flour):

Parsleyfits better
Garlicfits better
Thymefits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, pepper, onion, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.