Name: Grandma's Parsnip Stew
Ingredients: 6 slices of salt pork; 2 quarts boiling water; 1 teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; 6 medium-sized potatoes, sliced; 6 parsnips, sliced

Why it works: Pork and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Grandma's Parsnip Stew

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the salt pork in a kettle.
Add boiling water, salt, and black pepper.
Slice the potatoes and parsnips, then boil for 10 minutes.
Add dumplings and cook uncovered for 15 minutes.
Turn the dumplings over and cook for an additional 5 minutes.

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.

Pork + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,668 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Potato + parsniptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together353 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + parsniptop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,109 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

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