Name: Meat Pudding
Ingredients: 3 pounds of beef steak (trimmed of fat) or beef skirt; Optional: a little veal or pork griskin; Coarse sea salt; Pepper; ¼ to ½ ounce of butter; Jelly gravy from cold roast meat (optional)

Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Meat Pudding

Ingredients

3 pounds of beef steak (trimmed of fat) or beef skirt
Optional: a little veal or pork griskin
Coarse sea salt
Pepper
¼ to ½ ounce of butter
Jelly gravy from cold roast meat (optional)

Directions

Cut the meat into 2-inch pieces and season well with salt and pepper.
Place a bit of butter in the center of the pudding.
If using, add a little jelly gravy from cold roast meat for flavor.
Ensure the crust is securely closed and tie it over with a cloth.
Boil the pudding for at least 3 hours.
Carefully remove the pudding from the pot and let it stand for a minute or two before removing the cloth.

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 + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,784 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Beef + meattop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,533 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,847 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,594 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).