Why it works: Horse and radish work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 529 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓
To Roast Beef, Mutton, or Veal
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Season the meat with salt and pepper.
Roast the meat in the oven until cooked to your preference.
Serve with horse radish, salad, potatoes, and pickles.
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.
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Horse + radishtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together529 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,052 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Beef + horsetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Beef + muttontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,373 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Radish + potatotop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together37 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-methyl-1-butanol (fusel, malty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the radish
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, mutton, veal, horse, potato):
- Onionfits better
- Tomatofits better
- Carrotfits better
- Radishthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mutton, veal, horse, potato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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