Name: Alamode Beef, or Veal
Ingredients: ½ pint water; 1 tablespoon mushroom ketchup; 1 tablespoon port wine

Why it works: Mushroom and port wine work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 570 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Alamode Beef, or Veal

Ingredients

½ pint water
1 tablespoon mushroom ketchup
1 tablespoon port wine

Directions

In a pot, add ½ pint of water and bring to a simmer.
Thicken the water as per your preferred method.
Just before boiling, stir in 1 tablespoon of mushroom ketchup and 1 tablespoon of port wine.
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.

Mushroom + port winetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together570 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ketchup + port winetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together425 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Mushroom + ketchuptop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).