Name: Meat Omnium
Ingredients: cooked meat (boiled or roast, butcher's meat, poultry, or game); parsley (a little); green onions (a few); mushrooms (optional); 2 eggs (beaten); gravy or stock (a little)

Why it works: Parsley and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Meat Omnium

Ingredients

cooked meat (boiled or roast, butcher's meat, poultry, or game)
parsley (a little)
green onions (a few)
mushrooms (optional)
2 eggs (beaten)
gravy or stock (a little)

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

Mince all the cooked meat very fine.

Make the stew

In a stew-pan, combine the minced meat, parsley, green onions, mushrooms, beaten eggs, and gravy or stock.
Simmer for 15 minutes.

Assemble and bake

In a meat dish, layer the stew, slices of bread, and more stew alternately.
Heat in the oven at 350°F (175°C) until hot.
Pour the remaining hot stew over the layers and serve.

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 + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,626 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Parsley + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,132 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,423 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,364 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

Cooked meat: Forms the bulk of the casserole and gives it its main flavor.
Eggs: Bind the minced meat and set as the stew heats, holding the layers together.
Gravy or stock: Adds moisture so the minced meat and bread stay tender rather than dry.