Name: A Very Nice Stew of Ox Palates
Ingredients: Ox palates; thick gravy; cayenne pepper; minced shallot or onion; 1 tablespoon ketchup or pickle of walnuts, mushrooms, or onions

Why it works: Pepper and shallot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,898 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

A Very Nice Stew of Ox Palates

Ingredients

Directions

Clean the ox palates well and boil until the upper skin comes off easily.
Cut the palates into long fillets or square pieces.
Stew the pieces slowly in thick gravy.
Season with cayenne, minced shallot or onion, and ketchup or pickle.

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.

Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,898 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Shallot + ketchuptop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together476 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pepper + ketchuptop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,207 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).