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Christmas Dinner

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Christmas Dinner

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil rutabagas until tender.

  2. Boil onions until soft.

  3. Bake sweet potatoes until cooked through.

  4. Prepare celery as desired.

  5. Serve olives and sweet pickles as sides.

  6. Roast beef until desired doneness.

  7. Brown potatoes in a skillet until crispy.

  8. Prepare Russian salad according to your recipe.

  9. Serve wafers as a light snack.

  10. Slice and serve mince pie.

  11. Slice and serve custard pie.

  12. Prepare plum pudding according to your recipe.

  13. Serve grapes, oranges, nuts, and raisins as fresh fruit options.

  14. Brew and serve coffee.

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.

  1. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Celery + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Olive + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,458 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Rutabaga + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together138 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

Swap the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rutabaga, onion, sweet potato, celery, olive, beef, potato):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Pumpkinfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rutabaga, onion, sweet potato, celery, olive, beef, potato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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