Name: Meat Soups
Ingredients: meat; cold water; salt (to taste); onions; vermicelli or rice (for thickening)

Why it works: Onion and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Meat Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Place the meat in a pot with cold water and bring to a boil slowly.
Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer for three to four hours, skimming off any foam that rises until the soup is clear.
Use a granite or enamel-lined kettle for better health and clarity.
Add onions as soon as the soup starts to boil.
If making a thick soup, partially cook the vermicelli or rice before adding it to the soup.

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.

Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + ricetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,481 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,364 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).