Name: Rolled Neck of Pork
Ingredients: a few crumbs of bread; salt; pepper; 2-3 allspice berries

Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Rolled Neck of Pork

Ingredients

a few crumbs of bread
salt
pepper
2-3 allspice berries

Directions

Roll the meat tightly.
Place it a good distance from the fire.
Roast it slowly.

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.

Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Bread + allspicetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together679 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).