Name: Venison Stew
Ingredients: Venison meat, cut into small pieces; Potatoes, peeled and halved if large; Salt and pepper, to taste

Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Venison Stew

Ingredients

Venison meat, cut into small pieces
Potatoes, peeled and halved if large
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

Boil the venison pieces in water for 2 hours.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add the peeled and halved potatoes to the pot.
Once cooked, skim off any fat, thicken the gravy, and pour it over the stew.

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.

Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together786 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Venison + meattop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together126 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Venison + potatotop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together61 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).