Name: Minced Chicken, and Poached Eggs
Ingredients: white meat of a roast or boiled fowl; 1 tablespoon Bechamel sauce; glazed tongue or ham, for garnish; fried croutons of bread; white sauce, for serving

Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Minced Chicken, and Poached Eggs

Ingredients

white meat of a roast or boiled fowl
1 tablespoon Bechamel sauce
glazed tongue or ham, for garnish
fried croutons of bread
white sauce, for serving

Directions

Cut the white meat of the fowl into mince or shreds.
In a small saucepan, combine the minced meat with the Bechamel sauce and warm it up.
Dish the warm mince onto a plate.
Place poached eggs around the mince, adding a piece of glazed tongue or ham and a fried crouton between each egg.
Pour a little white sauce around the dish and serve.

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.

Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,536 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Sauce + breadtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,934 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + hamtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,314 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).