Name: Dinner
Ingredients: 6-7 pounds sirloin of beef, leg of mutton, leg of lamb, or 2 large chickens; Soaked bread crumbs; Sweet marjoram; Pepper; Coarse sea salt; Softened butter; Bread crumbs for topping; 3-4 pounds fish; Pork strips (optional)

Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Dinner

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.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Place a sheet of iron on the bottom of the oven to prevent dishes from touching the hot surface.
Remove the next shelf, leaving the middle and upper shelves in place.
Choose a suitable dish for the meat, about 2-2.5 inches deep.
If using chickens, stuff them with soaked bread crumbs seasoned with sweet marjoram, pepper, and coarse sea salt.
Baste the chickens with softened butter and sprinkle with bread crumbs.
For fish, score it crosswise, place in a shallow dish, and add pork strips or butter and bread crumbs.
Cook the meat and fish according to their types, ensuring proper cooking times.

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 + porktop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,690 recipes

Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Bread + fishtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

Swap the marjoram

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, bread, pepper, butter, fish, pork):

Parsleyfits about as well
Thymefits about as well
Marjoramthe original
Sagefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, bread, pepper, butter, fish, pork. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.