Name: Pot-au-feu
Ingredients: beef (leg, shoulders, or ribs); vegetables (carrots, leeks, onions, etc.); coarse sea salt; water; caramel or burnt sugar (optional)

Why it works: Carrot and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,310 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pot-au-feu

Ingredients

Directions

Ensure the stewpan is very clean, preferably made of tinned metal or earthenware.
Place fresh beef in the stewpan and cover with water.
Simmer gently and continuously, skimming the surface carefully.
Keep the fire steady and slow, adjusting as needed to maintain a gentle simmer.
After half the cooking time, add the vegetables to the stewpan.
Do not let the vegetables remain in the pan after they are cooked, to avoid absorbing the broth's flavor.
For color, add a little caramel or burnt sugar at the end of cooking.
Serve the broth first or the next day, as preferred.

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.

Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,310 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Leek + oniontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,326 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).
Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,606 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).