Name: Beef Jelly
Ingredients: beef tea (see Soups with Meat); 1/8 ounce gelatine; cold water

Why it works: Beef and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,533 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Beef Jelly

Ingredients

beef tea (see Soups with Meat)
1/8 ounce gelatine
cold water

Directions

Make beef tea with a little salt.
Soak 1/8 ounce of gelatine in a little cold water until swollen.
Heat the gelatine on the fire and boil until dissolved.
When the beef tea is nearly cold, add the dissolved gelatine and stir well.
Pour the mixture into molds.

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.

Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,533 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Beef + teatop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together417 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan (thiamin, meat).
Tea + meattop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together207 recipes

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