Name: To Make a Pasty of Beef or Mutton, to Eat As Well
Ingredients: pepper; coarse sea salt; butter; beef or mutton; venison bones; fine old mutton; ½ pint gravy

Why it works: Pepper and beef 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 ↓

To Make a Pasty of Beef or Mutton, to Eat As Well

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Lay some pepper and coarse sea salt at the bottom of a dish, followed by some butter.
Pack the beef or mutton nicely into the dish, ensuring it is sufficiently done without leaving hollow spaces.
Boil the venison bones with fine old mutton to make gravy, then add ½ pint of cold gravy to the dish.
Lay butter on top of the meat and cover the sides with a thick crust, leaving the bottom crustless.
Reserve the remaining gravy until the pasty is done, then pour it into the middle of the pasty using a funnel while hot.
Shake the dish gently to mix the gravy with 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 + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,373 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Venison + muttontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together279 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + venisontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together957 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + muttontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).