Name: Broiled Venison Steak
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons currant jelly; 1 piece butter; coarse sea salt; black pepper

Why it works: Currant and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,856 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Broiled Venison Steak

Ingredients

2 tablespoons currant jelly
1 piece butter
coarse sea salt
black pepper

Directions

Broil the venison steak quickly over a clear fire until cooked to your liking.
Melt the currant jelly with the butter and pour it over the steak.
Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper.
Serve hot on hot plates.

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.

Currant + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,856 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Currant + peppertop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,345 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).