Name: Modern Cookery
Ingredients: beef or mutton; lamb or pork cutlets; fish; butter; salt; pepper; oil

Why it works: Beef and lamb match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 896 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

For beef or mutton, broil until undercooked; lamb or pork cutlets should be thoroughly cooked.
For fish, wrap in a thickly buttered sheet of parchment before broiling.
For delicate fish, rub the grill bars with chalk instead of suet.
For cutlets, dip in egg and breadcrumbs, then coat with clarified butter to prevent a dry crust.
Season cutlets with salt and pepper, and brush with oil or butter to keep moist.
Do not season with salt until just before serving.

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 + lambtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together896 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lamb + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,165 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,488 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Beef + fishtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together226 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).