Name: Cannelon of Beef
Ingredients: 1 lb round steak, chopped fine; 1 egg; 2 teaspoons chopped parsley; 1 tablespoon butter; 2 tablespoons bread crumbs; 1 teaspoon lemon juice; 1 teaspoon salt; a dash of pepper; ½ teaspoon onion juice

Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Cannelon of Beef

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Mix all the ingredients together.
Form the mixture into a roll and wrap it in buttered paper.

Bake and baste

Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 30 minutes.
Baste with ½ cup melted butter mixed with 1 cup of water.

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.

Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Round steak: Provides the main meaty body and structure of the filling.
Egg: Binds the chopped meat so the roll holds together when cooked.
Bread crumbs: Absorb moisture and help the filling hold its shape.
Butter: Adds richness and moisture, and helps the surface brown while baking.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, parsley, butter, bread, lemon, pepper):

Shallotfits better
Asparagusfits better
Spinachfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parsley, butter, bread, lemon, pepper. 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.