Name: Civet of Hare
Ingredients: 1 leveret (young hare), trimmed and cut into fillets; ½ pound streaky bacon, cut into squares; 2 ounces butter; 12 button mushrooms; 1 onion, sliced; 1 carrot, boiled nearly soft and cut into squares

Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Civet of Hare

Ingredients

1 leveret (young hare), trimmed and cut into fillets
½ pound streaky bacon, cut into squares
2 ounces butter
12 button mushrooms
1 onion, sliced
1 carrot, boiled nearly soft and cut into squares

Directions

In a sauté pan, combine the bacon, butter, mushrooms, onion, and carrot.
Fry the mixture over medium heat for 10 minutes.

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.

Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Mushroom + carrottop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,796 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,626 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).