Name: Beautiful Bread, Rolls, Biscuit, Puddings
Ingredients: fresh meat (hock or shin of beef, ends of rib roasts, neck or shoulder); bones (knuckle of veal, leg of mutton); lean ham or smoked beef; cold water

Why it works: Meat and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Beautiful Bread, Rolls, Biscuit, Puddings

Ingredients

fresh meat (hock or shin of beef, ends of rib roasts, neck or shoulder)
bones (knuckle of veal, leg of mutton)
lean ham or smoked beef
cold water

Directions

Cut the meat into half-inch slices across the grain.
Remove any stale or discolored bits from the meat and bones.
Clean the outside of the meat with a cloth dampened in warm water.
Place a perforated pie plate in the soup kettle to keep bones off the bottom.
Add the bones and meat to the kettle.
Pour in cold water and cover the kettle.
Heat the kettle until it comes to a boil, which should take at least one hour.

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.

Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + muttontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together936 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Mutton + hamtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together430 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Veal + muttontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,394 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,264 recipes

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