Why it works: Potato and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓
Savoy Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Separate the yolks and whites of the eggs. Place yolks in a bowl and whites in a cool place.
Add sugar and a pinch of salt to the yolks. Mix until creamy.
Whisk the egg whites until firm and frothy.
Combine both flours with the yolk mixture.
Gently fold in the whisked egg whites in small amounts until smooth.
Chop and melt the suet in a pan, then strain it through a cloth.
Coat the inside of a mould with the melted suet, then pour it out and let it drain.
Dust the inside of the mould with finely-pounded sugar.
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.
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Potato + beeftop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,052 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Potato + orangetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together537 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,355 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 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
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, flour, egg, sugar, beef):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, flour, egg, sugar, beef. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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