Name: Boiled Dinner
Ingredients: 1 rump piece of beef (slightly corned); cold water (enough to cover the beef); salt (to taste); potatoes (as needed); onions (as needed); turnips (as needed)

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Boiled Dinner

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the beef

Place the beef in a large kettle and cover with cold water.
Bring to a boil for 15 minutes.
Transfer the beef to a cooker and let it cook.

Prepare the vegetables

Prepare the potatoes, onions, and turnips.
Place onions and turnips in a wire basket with salt at the bottom.
Dust the potatoes with salt and place them in an enameled basin to steam.

Finish the dinner

After 15 more minutes of boiling the beef, place both kettles in the cooker together.
Let the dinner cook until ready, except for dessert and soup.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,585 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + turniptop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together562 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,052 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef: Provides the main meat; long gentle cooking in water tenderizes its connective tissue.
Potatoes: Their starch softens with steaming, giving a soft, floury texture.
Onions: Mellow and sweeten as they cook, adding aroma to the dinner.
Turnips: Firm when cooked and add a mildly sweet, earthy flavor.