Name: Veal Birds
Ingredients: 1 lb veal, cut into very thin slices (about 1/4 inch thick); 1 loaf stale bread, cut into 16 chunks; 1/5 lb veal fat or butter; 1 onion, halved; 1 pint milk; flour; celery salt; pepper; coarse sea salt

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Birds

Ingredients

Directions

Wipe the veal and cut it into pieces measuring 2x3 inches.
Place 4 pieces of veal on each plate, with 1 plate for every 4 servings.
Melt the veal fat or butter in the top part of a double boiler over hot water.
Cut the onion into halves and place 1 half on each saucer, with 1 saucer for every 4 servings.
Set the celery salt shaker within easy reach.
Pour the milk into bowls, with 1 cup in each bowl for every 8 servings.

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.

Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, bread, milk, flour, celery, pepper):

Carrotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Leekfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, bread, milk, flour, celery, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.