Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Sweet Patties
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chop the meat from a boiled calf's foot.
Mix the chopped meat with jelly, apples, candied orange and lemon peels, fresh lemon peel and juice, grated nutmeg, egg yolk, brandy, and currants.
Bake
Fill small pattypans with the mixture.
Bake until golden.
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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Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
-
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Brandy + curranttop 7% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,057 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Orange + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,746 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Calf's foot meat
- Provides the bulk and savoury body of the filling.
- Jelly
- Adds moisture and binds the filling as it sets.
- Egg yolk
- Helps bind the filling and adds richness.
- Currants
- Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
- Apples
- Add moisture and tartness that balance the sweetness.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, apple, orange, lemon, nutmeg, egg, brandy):
- Figfits better
- Blackberryfits better
- Cranberryfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, apple, orange, lemon, nutmeg, egg, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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