Why it works: Egg and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Rissoles
Ingredients
Directions
Heat 1 pound of clarified dripping in a saucepan, being careful not to burn it.
In a bowl, combine ½ pound of flour, a pinch of salt, and 4 ounces of clarified dripping.
Rub the dripping into the flour until it resembles fine powder.
Add a little cold water and mix into a stiff paste.
Flour a board and turn the paste out onto it.
Open a tin of canned meat and remove the gills from the meat needed.
Take ½ pound of meat, scrape off excess jelly, and chop it finely.
Rub a small bunch of dried herbs into a powder and sprinkle over the meat, along with salt and pepper.
Roll out the paste as thin as possible using a rolling pin.
Cut the paste into rounds with a floured cutter, slightly larger than a teacup top.
Place some meat in the center of each round of paste.
Beat the egg in a plate.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
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