Name: Beefsteak Roll
Ingredients: 2 pounds round steak, chopped fine; 6 soda crackers, crushed; 2 eggs; ½ cup sweet milk or cream (use butter if using milk); pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; sage or onion to taste

Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Beefsteak Roll

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make and bake the loaf

In a large bowl, combine the chopped steak, crushed soda crackers, eggs, and sweet milk or cream.
Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and sage or onion to taste. Mix well and shape into a loaf.
Place the loaf in a baking dish and bake until cooked through.

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.

Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26,984 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Milk + sagetop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together719 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Egg + sagetop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,100 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Round steak: Forms the main body of the loaf and provides the meaty texture.
Soda crackers: Absorb liquid and help bind the meat so the loaf holds its shape.
Eggs: Bind the mixture together and help set it as it cooks.
Sweet milk or cream: Adds moisture so the loaf stays tender rather than dry.