Why it works: Pepper and summer savory work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 671 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Roast Spare Rib
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
Season spare rib with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and summer savory.
Place rib in a pan with ½ cup water.
Roast
Baste often and roast until nicely browned and thoroughly cooked.
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.
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Pepper + summer savorytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together671 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Spare rib
- The main cut; roasting browns its surface while the meat cooks through to tenderness.
- Summer savory
- Adds a peppery, herbal aroma that flavours the meat.
The step that matters
Baste often and roast until browned and thoroughly cooked. Basting keeps the surface moist while it browns, and the meat must reach full doneness throughout. Cutting the roast short leaves it underdone in the centre, and too little basting can leave it dry.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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