Name: To Dress Cold Beef That Has Not Been Done Enough, Called Beef-olives
Ingredients: Beef (slices, ½ inch thick, 4 inches square); Bread crumbs; Shallot (finely chopped); Suet or fat; Pepper; Coarse sea salt; Gravy (from beef bones or meat); Water

Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

To Dress Cold Beef That Has Not Been Done Enough, Called Beef-olives

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare slices of beef, laying them flat.
Mix bread crumbs, shallot, suet, pepper, and salt to make a forcemeat.
Spread the forcemeat on the beef slices and roll them up, securing with a skewer.
Place the rolled beef in a stew-pan with gravy and a little water.
Stew the beef until tender.

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 + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,898 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,032 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Bread + shallottop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,245 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Beef + shallottop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,103 recipes

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