Name: Turnips with Pork
Ingredients: 1 small piece of salt or fresh pork; 1 quart boiling water; turnips, washed, peeled, and sliced thin; coarse sea salt to taste; black pepper to taste

Why it works: Turnip and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,252 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Turnips with Pork

Ingredients

1 small piece of salt or fresh pork
1 quart boiling water
turnips, washed, peeled, and sliced thin
coarse sea salt to taste
black pepper to taste

Directions

If using salt pork, soak it in hot water for 20 minutes to freshen.
Cook the pork in a covered saucepan with boiling water for 30 minutes.
Add the sliced turnips and cook until they are tender.
Ensure the water evaporates, then remove the turnips.
Mash the turnips finely, season with salt, and sprinkle with black pepper.
Serve with hot cornmeal muffins.

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.

Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,252 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Pork + turniptop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,358 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

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