Name: Mince Meat Foe Sandwiches
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons steak; 1 pound butter; pepper to taste; salt to taste; 1 teaspoon nutmeg; 1 teaspoon ground mace; 1 tablespoon anchovy sauce

Why it works: Anchovy and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Mince Meat Foe Sandwiches

Ingredients

Directions

Place 3 tablespoons of steak in a can with 1 pound of butter, pepper, and salt.
Cover the can tightly and simmer in boiling water for 4 to 5 hours.
Remove the can and pass the meat through a meat grinder.
Add the gravy, nutmeg, ground mace, and anchovy sauce; mix thoroughly.
If not seasoned enough, add more pepper and salt.
Press the mixture firmly into a basin for easier spreading.

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.

Anchovy + saucetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,057 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Nutmeg + macetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,557 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,697 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, nutmeg, anchovy, sauce):

Parsleyfits better
Capersfits better
Thymefits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, nutmeg, anchovy, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.