Name: Potted Pigeons
Ingredients: 5-6 slices of salt pork; 1 onion, finely chopped; pepper, to taste; coarse sea salt, to taste; flour, for dusting; hot water or brown stock, enough to cover the pigeons; 6 crackers, split and dipped in cold water

Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potted Pigeons

Ingredients

5-6 slices of salt pork
1 onion, finely chopped
pepper, to taste
coarse sea salt, to taste
flour, for dusting
hot water or brown stock, enough to cover the pigeons
6 crackers, split and dipped in cold water

Directions

Layer the salt pork in the bottom of a pot.
Fry the chopped onion in the pork fat until browned.
Place the pigeons in the pot, season with pepper and salt, and dust with flour.
Add enough hot water or brown stock to cover the pigeons.
Stew gently for one hour, adding more liquid if it boils away.
Cover the pigeons with the soaked crackers and stew for an additional 15 minutes.
Serve in a deep dish, pouring the gravy over the pigeons.

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.

Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,121 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together32,460 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).