Name: Roast Veal
Ingredients: 8 oz. bruised bread crumbs; 4 oz. chopped suet; 1 shallot, chopped; 1 tsp thyme, chopped; 1 tsp marjoram, chopped; 1 tsp winter savory, chopped; 2 eggs; salt to taste; pepper to taste

Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Roast Veal

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, combine the bruised bread crumbs, chopped suet, shallot, thyme, marjoram, and winter savory.
Add the eggs, salt, and pepper, mixing until you form a firm paste.
Cut a pocket in the veal and fill it with the stuffing, securing it with a skewer.
Roast the veal for just over an hour, or until thoroughly cooked.

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.

Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,225 recipes

Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).
Thyme + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together780 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Marjoram + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together455 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Shallot + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together221 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,476 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, thyme, marjoram, winter savory, egg, pepper):

Shallotthe original
Leekfits about as well
Carrotfits less well
Capsicumfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, thyme, marjoram, winter savory, egg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.