Name: Ragout of Spare Ribs and Peas
Ingredients: 5 lbs spareribs; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 sprigs of mint or sweet herbs; 1 teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper; lean peas (amount as desired); boiling water (enough to cover the spareribs)

Why it works: Mint and peas are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,137 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Ragout of Spare Ribs and Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and stew

Cut the spareribs into small pieces, leaving two or three ribs in each piece.
In a saucepan, heat the butter.
Add the spareribs, mint or herbs, salt, pepper, and enough boiling water to cover the spareribs, then stew for 30 minutes.
Add the peas and heat thoroughly.

Serve

Serve the ragout with the spareribs in the center and the peas arranged neatly around them.

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.

Mint + peastop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,137 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Mint + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,372 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + peastop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,331 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + peastop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,887 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Spareribs: Provide the meat that becomes tender during the long stew and gives the ragout its main body.
Butter: Adds fat and richness to the saucepan and carries flavor into the dish.
Lean peas: Add a sweet, fresh vegetable element and a bright color to the finished ragout.