Name: Veal Beignets
Ingredients: cold cooked veal, cut into 2-inch square slices; coarse sea salt; black pepper; batter for dipping; boiling fat for frying; baked potatoes, for serving

Why it works: Pepper and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Veal Beignets

Ingredients

Directions

Season the veal slices with salt and pepper.
Dip the seasoned veal pieces into the batter.
Fry the battered veal in plenty of boiling fat for 2-3 minutes until golden brown.
Arrange baked potatoes neatly around a hot dish.
Place the fried beignets in the center and serve immediately.

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.

Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together343 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).