Name: Suet-Crust
Ingredients: ½ pound flour; 5 ounces beef suet; 2 pounds rump or beef steak; ¼ teaspoon salt; pepper to taste; 1 dozen oysters; ½ cup stock

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 ↓

Suet-Crust

Ingredients

Directions

Chop the beef suet finely after removing the skin.
In a bowl, combine flour, chopped suet, and salt.
Rub the suet into the flour with your hands.
Gradually add cold water to form a smooth paste.
Roll out the paste to a thickness of just over ⅛ inch.
Butter a quart pudding basin and line it with the paste.
Trim the excess paste from the top of the basin.
Roll out another piece of paste for the top, also ⅛ inch thick.
Slice the beef steak thinly and season with salt and pepper.
Combine oysters and their liquor in a saucepan and heat gently.

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).
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beef + oystertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Pepper + oystertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,663 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour + oystertop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,582 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).