Name: Snipe Pie
Ingredients: 8 snipe; 2 pounds gravy meat; 2 pounds undercut or tender rib meat; salt; pepper; 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley; ½ cup Madeira or white wine

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Snipe Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare 6 snipe for roasting and set aside 2 for the gravy.
Obtain 2 pounds of gravy meat and 2 pounds of undercut or tender rib meat for the pie.
Make a rich beef gravy and add the 2 snipe to it.
Simmer the snipe in the gravy until tender.
Pound the cooked snipe into a paste and blend it with the gravy.
Season with salt and pepper, and mix in chopped parsley before assembling the pie.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + white winetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,890 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
Pepper + white winetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + parsleytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,040 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).