Name: Beefsteaks with Anchovy Butter
Ingredients: beefsteaks; anchovy butter; Indian pickle; watercress; olives; common pickles

Why it works: Watercress and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 684 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Beefsteaks with Anchovy Butter

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare beefsteaks as you would normally.
Substitute anchovy butter for the Matre d' Hotel.
Garnish with Indian pickle, watercress, olives, or any common pickles.
Serve immediately.

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.

Watercress + olivetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together684 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Anchovy + olivetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together880 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanol (green, fruity).
Anchovy + watercresstop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together63 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,697 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + olivetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,887 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).