Name: Boston Roast
Ingredients: 1 pound canned kidney beans or ½ pound grated cheese; Bread crumbs; Coarse sea salt; Butter; Water; Tomato sauce; Onions (optional)

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Boston Roast

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Mash the kidney beans or put them through a meat grinder.
Add the grated cheese and enough bread crumbs to form a stiff mixture.
Shape into a roll and place in a baking dish.
Baste occasionally with melted butter and water while baking.
Serve with tomato sauce.
For added flavor, sauté chopped onions in butter and water before adding.

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.

Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Kidney beans + tomatotop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together821 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (kidney beans, bread, butter, tomato, sauce):

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits about as well
Onionthe original
Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against kidney beans, bread, butter, tomato, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.