Name: Veal Pot-pie
Ingredients: veal; potatoes; minced parsley; Biscuit Dough; broth

Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Pot-pie

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the veal and potatoes as for Beef Stew, adding several tablespoons of minced parsley.
Roll out the Biscuit Dough to ½ inch thickness and cut into 2-inch squares.
Layer the stew and dough squares alternately in a baking dish, with the dough on top.
Pour the broth from the stew over the layers and steam for 1 hour.

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 + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,855 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Potato + biscuittop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together137 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Parsley + biscuittop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together204 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Veal + parsleytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,766 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Veal + potatotop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together343 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).