Name: Preservation of Eggs
Ingredients: mutton suet; beef suet; olive oil; bran

Why it works: Mutton and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,373 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Preservation of Eggs

Ingredients

mutton suet
beef suet
olive oil
bran

Directions

Melt mutton and beef suet together in a small pot.
Dip the eggs into the melted suet to coat them.
Wipe off any excess fat or oil to prevent rancidity.
Place the eggs upright with the small end on top, wedged closely together in layers in bran.
Cover the container tightly.

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.

Mutton + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,373 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Beef + olivetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,220 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Mutton + olivetop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).