Name: Cow-heel Jelly
Ingredients: some veal; some beef or mutton; good broth; sweet herbs; 1 bay leaf; coarse sea salt; cow's heel, cut into small pieces; bread (optional); vegetables (optional)

Why it works: Veal and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,784 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Cow-heel Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Place veal and beef or mutton in a covered jug in a pan of boiling water or in an oven at 300°F (150°C) for several hours.
Add good broth, sweet herbs, bay leaf, and coarse sea salt, and let it stand together.
Add the cow's heel cut into small pieces.
Strain out the hard meat, leaving the cow's heel to be eaten.
Optionally, add bread and vegetables.

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.

Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,784 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,032 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Veal + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,056 recipes

Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).