Name: Meat Pie
Ingredients: mutton chops (from the loin or neck); chopped parsley; butter; pepper; coarse sea salt; good brown gravy; slices of raw ham; mashed potatoes

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Meat Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Trim the mutton chops neatly.
In a stewpan over low heat, combine the chops with chopped parsley, butter, pepper, and coarse sea salt.
Place the chops and good brown gravy into a tin baking dish.
Add slices of raw ham on top.
Fill the dish to the brim with mashed potatoes and cover with the lid.
Bake for 2 hours at 300°F (150°C).
Remove the lid and check that the chops are tender.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,855 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,456 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Mutton + hamtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together430 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, parsley, butter, pepper, ham):

Carrotfits better
Shallotfits about as well
Potatothe original
Leekfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, parsley, butter, pepper, ham. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.