Name: Potato and Bacon Pie
Ingredients: 4 chopped onions; 3 pounds peeled and sliced potatoes; 1 pound fat bacon; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt') to taste

Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓

Potato and Bacon Pie

Ingredients

4 chopped onions
3 pounds peeled and sliced potatoes
1 pound fat bacon
pepper to taste
coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt') to taste

Directions

Prepare the filling

Combine onions and potatoes in a saucepan with enough water to cover them; season with pepper and no salt.
Boil gently until the potatoes are well done, then mash everything together.
Boil the bacon in a separate pot, then slice it.

Assemble and bake

In a greased pie dish, layer the potato mash and bacon alternately.
Bake in the oven until heated through.

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.

Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes: Form the bulk of the filling and, once mashed, give it a soft, starchy body.
Onions: Add savory sweetness and aroma as they soften while boiling with the potatoes.
Bacon: Adds salty, smoky fat and meaty flavor that contrasts with the mash.