Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Veal, Minced
Ingredients
Directions
In a pan, cook the bacon until crispy.
Add the herbs, mace, pepper, onions, and enough stock or water to cover.
Cover the pan with a lid and simmer for 2 hours, shaking occasionally.
Remove the bacon, herbs, and onions from the pan.
Reduce the gravy until it thickens to a glaze.
Glaze the meat with the thickened gravy and serve with tomato, mushroom, or sorrel sauce.
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.
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,257 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Mace + oniontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,078 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, onion):
- Garlicfits better
- Thymefits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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