Name: Larded Beef
Ingredients: lardoons of fat salt pork; chopped herbs; minced onion; pepper; coarse sea salt; 4 or 5 whole cloves; 1 tablespoon chopped green pickle; broth from skimmed gravy; soup stock

Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Larded Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Insert lardoons of fat salt pork into the cold roast after trimming off ragged parts.
Place the roast in a deep pan and sprinkle with chopped herbs, minced onion, pepper, coarse sea salt, whole cloves, and chopped green pickle.
Half cover the roast with broth made from yesterday's skimmed gravy and a little soup stock.
Cover the pan tightly and cook in a 350°F (175°C) oven for one hour, turning the roast halfway through.
Remove the meat, strain the gravy, and thicken it.
Bring the gravy to a boil, pour some over the meat, and serve the rest in a gravy boat.

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 + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,901 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Pork + clovetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,515 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).