Name: A Veal Kidney Pie
Ingredients: 1 veal kidney, sliced; Coarse sea salt, to taste; Black pepper, to taste; Cayenne pepper, to taste; Truffle farce (truffle filling); Slices of truffles; Thin slices of ham fat

Why it works: Veal and truffle work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 815 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

A Veal Kidney Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare a pie crust similar to a truffle pie and fill it halfway with truffle farce.
Season the sliced veal kidney with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.
Layer the seasoned kidney on top of the truffle farce, adding a few slices of truffles.
Place thin slices of ham fat over the truffles.
Cover the pie and finish it like the truffle pie, but do not add any wine.

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.

Veal + truffletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together815 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Truffle + hamtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together516 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,264 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + hamtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,058 recipes

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