Name: Curried Roast Beef
Ingredients: 2 cups cold roast beef, cut into small bits; 2 onions, sliced thin; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 cup boiling water; 2 teaspoons curry powder; boiled rice for lining the dish

Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Curried Roast Beef

Ingredients

2 cups cold roast beef, cut into small bits
2 onions, sliced thin
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup boiling water
2 teaspoons curry powder
boiled rice for lining the dish

Directions

Make the curry

Melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the beef and sliced onions; brown for 5 minutes.
Pour in the boiling water and stir in the curry powder.
Let it simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.

Assemble and serve

Line an earthen vegetable dish with boiled rice and pour the curried beef into it.
Serve hot.

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.

Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,265 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + ricetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,645 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Roast beef: Provides the main protein, which becomes tender and absorbs the curry flavour as it simmers.
Onions: Soften and brown in the butter, adding sweetness and body to the sauce.
Butter: Carries the curry powder's flavour and helps the onions and beef brown.
Curry powder: Supplies the spiced aroma that defines the dish.