Name: Ravioli
Ingredients: 1 pint sifted flour; 5 eggs; ½ teaspoon salt; 2 tablespoons warm water; Parmesan cheese; salt; melted butter; thick tomato sauce

Why it works: Parmesan cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Ravioli

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

Combine flour, beaten eggs, salt, and warm water in a bowl.
Knead until firm, glossy dough.
Let dough rest for 30 minutes.

Fill and shape

Roll out half the dough.
Place small spoonfuls of filling at equal distances.
Cut the dough into squares around the filling.

Cook and serve

Boil the ravioli in salted water for 10 minutes.
Layer the cooked ravioli in a dish.
Sprinkle Parmesan cheese and pour melted butter between layers.
Top with thick tomato sauce.
Serve hot.

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.

Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,163 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Parmesan cheese + tomatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,490 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,469 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Forms the structure of the dough once combined with eggs and water.
Eggs: Bind the dough and add richness and structure to the pasta.
Parmesan cheese: Adds salty, savory flavor to the layers.
Melted butter: Adds fat and richness between the layers.
Thick tomato sauce: Adds moisture and acidity that complements the pasta.

The step that matters

Let dough rest for 30 minutes. Resting lets the gluten relax, so the dough rolls out thinly without snapping back and stays tender when boiled.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, egg, parmesan cheese, butter, sauce):

Asparagusfits better
Shallotfits better
Chivefits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, egg, parmesan cheese, butter, sauce. 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.