Name: High Tea, or Tea and Supper
Ingredients: 1 cup minced veal; 1 head of lettuce; 2 cups fried potatoes; bread; butter; cheese; tea

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 ↓

High Tea, or Tea and Supper

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Prepare the minced veal and season it as desired.
Wash and chop the lettuce.
Reheat any leftover fried potatoes.

Serve

Serve with bread, butter, and cheese.
Brew and serve tea.

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).
Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Lettuce + teatop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Lettuce + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together602 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Minced veal: Provides the main protein and savory meaty flavor of the meal.
Lettuce: Adds fresh crispness and a cool, watery crunch that contrasts with richer foods.
Fried potatoes: Supply starch and a crisp, browned exterior that makes the meal filling.
Butter: Adds richness and fat that softens the bread and carries flavor.
Cheese: Contributes salty, savory flavor and fat that complements the bread.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, fried potato, bread, butter, cheese, tea):

Potatofits better
Tomatofits better
Capsicumfits better
Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, fried potato, bread, butter, cheese, tea. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.