Name: Bouilli with Sharp Sauce
Ingredients: 1½ pounds cold beef; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; ½ cup stock; piquante or tomato sauce for serving

Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Bouilli with Sharp Sauce

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Cut the cold beef across the grain into slices ¼ inch thick.
Trim off the gristle and outside parts.
Place the meat in a small gratin dish.
Sprinkle with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Moisten with ½ cup of stock.

Bake and serve

Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 15 minutes.
Serve with piquante or tomato sauce poured over the meat.

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 + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold beef: Forms the main body of the dish; slicing across the grain keeps each piece tender to eat.
Stock: Adds moisture during baking so the thin slices do not dry out.