Name: The Dinner Question
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt; a pinch of baking soda; 1 quart boiling water; 1 ounce butter; ½ teaspoon black pepper; ½ teaspoon salt; poached eggs (for serving); slices of fried bacon (for serving); fried bread (for garnish)

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

The Dinner Question

Ingredients

Directions

Remove any grit from the spinach leaves and drain in a colander.
Place the leaves in a large saucepan with salt and baking soda.
Add boiling water, press the leaves down, and boil for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
Strain and press the spinach to remove excess water.
Chop the spinach finely and place it in a saucepan with butter, pepper, and salt.
Stir until the butter is absorbed, then transfer to a hot dish.
Cut the spinach into small squares or diamonds and serve with poached eggs and fried bacon, garnished with fried bread.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,964 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).