Name: Bread
Ingredients: whole wheat flour; warm water; yeast; pure olive oil

Why it works: Wheat and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,100 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Bread

Ingredients

whole wheat flour
warm water
yeast
pure olive oil

Directions

Sift the whole wheat flour and let it sit in a warm place for about an hour.
Dissolve the yeast in warm water.
Combine the flour, yeast mixture, and a little olive oil to make a soft dough.
Place the dough in a warm area, cover with a pan and cloth, and let it rise overnight.

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.

Wheat + olivetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,100 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,871 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).