Name: Venison Steak with Chestnuts
Ingredients: venison steak; boiled chestnuts; salt pork; cauliflower or brussels sprouts

Why it works: Chestnut and cauliflower share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Venison Steak with Chestnuts

Ingredients

venison steak
boiled chestnuts
salt pork
cauliflower or brussels sprouts

Directions

Mash the boiled chestnuts and season them well.
Stuff the venison steak with the seasoned chestnuts and roll it up.
Lard the rolled steak with salt pork.
Roast the steak until cooked to your preference.
Serve with cauliflower or brussels sprouts.

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.

Chestnut + cauliflowertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Chestnut + porktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together437 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pork + cauliflowertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together116 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethylphenol (must).
Venison + porktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together243 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Venison + chestnuttop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together21 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).