Why it works: Meat and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,364 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Time Required to Roast Meats
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).
Wipe the meat with a clean, damp cloth.
Place the meat in the oven without any water.
After it starts cooking, add a small amount of water and baste frequently.
Optionally, place an onion on top of the roast for flavor.
Remove the onion before serving.
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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Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,364 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Meat
- Forms the main body of the dish, browning on the outside and becoming tender as it roasts.
- Onion
- Adds aromatic flavor to the roast while it cooks; removed before serving.
The step that matters
Adding water and basting after cooking starts. A small amount of water and frequent basting keep the surface moist and help it brown evenly. Too much water, however, will steam the meat instead of roasting it.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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