Name: Rye Bread
Ingredients: 1 small cup of yeast; 6 hot boiled potatoes, mashed; 3 pint cups of lye flour; 2 tablespoons brown sugar; 1 quart warm water; 1 pint Indian meal; rye flour (enough to knead well)

Why it works: Flour and rye match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,320 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Rye Bread

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, combine yeast, mashed potatoes, lye flour, brown sugar, and warm water. Mix well.
Cover and let the mixture rise overnight.
The next morning, stir in the Indian meal and enough rye flour to knead the dough well.
Let the dough rise thoroughly, then divide it into loaves.
Place the loaves in a warm area and let them rise for 30 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.

Flour + ryetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,320 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Potato + ryetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together75 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,355 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + ryetop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together535 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).