Name: To Pot Beef
Ingredients: 2 pounds lean beef; coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; ½ cup fine butter; melted butter for covering

Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Pot Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA very cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Rub the beef with saltpetre and let it sit overnight.
Salt the beef with coarse sea salt and cover it with water in a small pan for four days.
Dry the beef with a cloth and season with black pepper.
Place the beef in a small pan, cover with coarse paste, and bake at 300°F (150°C) for five hours without adding any liquid.
Once cold, remove strings and fat, then finely chop the meat.
Heat the chopped meat with ½ cup of fine butter until warm, adding enough gravy to form a paste.
Pack the mixture into small pots and cover with melted butter.

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 + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,847 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

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