Why it works: Anise and flour work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 270 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Spare Rib, Stuffed
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the rib
Wash the spare rib in cold water and dry it.
Crack the bones in the middle without cutting through.
Fold the edges together.
Trim the ends.
Sew it up, leaving one end open.
Stuff and season
Mix the apples, prunes, and anise seed in a bowl.
Fill the rib with the mixture.
Sew it closed.
Season with salt and pepper on both sides.
Dredge with flour.
Roast and finish
Melt the butter in a roasting pan.
Add the water to the pan.
Place the spare rib in the pan.
Brown it on both sides.
Baste often with hot water.
Cook in a closed oven at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.
Cut the cord.
Remove it.
Add ½ pint of hot water to the gravy.
Stir well.
Let it boil for a few minutes.
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.
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Anise + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together270 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Anise + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together80 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Apple + anisetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15 recipes
Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Spare rib
- Forms the main body of the dish, and its bones and fat shape the roast.
- Sour apples and prunes
- Provide sweetness and acidity that contrast with the rich meat and fat.
- Flour
- Dredging creates a coating that helps the outside brown and thicken the gravy.
- Butter
- Adds fat that helps the outside brown and carries flavour into the roasting pan.
The step that matters
Brown it on both sides. Browning builds colour and roasted flavour through the Maillard reaction. Drying the rib and dredging it in flour before browning helps the surface brown rather than steam.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, anise, pepper, flour, butter):
- Lemonfits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, anise, pepper, flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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