Name: Tart Beef Sauce
Ingredients: 4 shallots, finely chopped; 1 tablespoon butter; 4 tablespoons vinegar; 1 ounce flour; 1 pint common stock broth; a little coloring; a pinch of pepper; 1 tablespoon chopped gherkins; 1 tablespoon minced parsley

Why it works: Shallot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Tart Beef Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

In a stew-pan, combine shallots, butter, and vinegar. Stir over medium heat until the butter is clear.
Add flour and stir for 3-4 minutes.
Pour in the stock broth, add coloring and pepper, and boil for 15 minutes.
Stir in gherkins and parsley, boil briefly, skim, and serve in a sauce tureen.

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.

Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,081 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,898 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Shallot + vinegartop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,374 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).