Name: Sxtbt Stuffing
Ingredients: ¼ pound suet, finely chopped; 3 cups fine stale bread; 3 raw eggs; ⅓ cup wine; 1 teaspoon powdered marjoram; 1 teaspoon thyme; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon pepper

Why it works: Marjoram and thyme 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 ↓

Sxtbt Stuffing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Remove all membrane from the suet and chop it very fine.
In a bowl, mix the chopped suet with the stale bread, raw eggs, wine, marjoram, thyme, salt, and pepper.

Stuff the turkey

Use this mixture to stuff a turkey.

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.

Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,225 recipes

Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).
Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Wine + thymetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,349 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Suet: Adds fat that keeps the stuffing moist and rich as it cooks.
Stale bread: Provides the bulk and structure that holds the stuffing together.
Raw eggs: Bind the mixture so it holds its shape when stuffed and cooked.
Wine: Adds moisture and a light acidity that brightens the savoury flavour.