Name: Fricandeau and Sorrel
Ingredients: Beef; Sorrel; Salt; Pepper; Butter

Why it works: Beef and pepper 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 ↓

Fricandeau and Sorrel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef by trimming and seasoning with salt and pepper.
In a skillet, melt butter over medium heat.
Sear the beef on all sides until browned.
Add chopped sorrel to the skillet and cook until wilted.
Serve the beef with the sorrel on top.

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.

Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together419 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Sorrel + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together652 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,847 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Beef + sorreltop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together87 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).