Name: Veal Scallop
Ingredients: cold roast or stewed veal, chopped fine; coarse sea salt; black pepper; cracker crumbs; butter, in small pieces; milk; gravy or broth, diluted with warm water; beaten eggs (1 or 2, if the dish is large)

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Veal Scallop

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Layer chopped veal in a buttered pudding dish and season with salt and pepper.
Add a layer of cracker crumbs, sprinkle with butter, and moisten with a little milk.
Repeat layering with more veal, seasoning, cracker crumbs, butter, and milk.
When the dish is full, pour gravy or broth diluted with warm water over it.
Top with a thick layer of seasoned cracker crumbs mixed with milk and beaten eggs.
Dot with butter pieces and cover with a tin pan to keep in steam.
Bake for 30 minutes for a small dish or 45 minutes for a large dish.
Remove the cover 10 minutes before serving to brown the top.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

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