Name: Modern Cookery
Ingredients: 1 cup flour; ½ cup thick cream; veal gravy or good white sauce (optional)

Why it works: Flour and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,481 recipes. Both carry acetaldehyde, which smells pungent, ethereal. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

1 cup flour
½ cup thick cream
veal gravy or good white sauce (optional)

Directions

In a bowl, add flour and create a well in the center.
Gradually pour in the thick cream, mixing until combined.
If preferred, substitute with veal gravy or good white sauce.

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.

Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,481 recipes

Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Cream + vealtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,202 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Flour + vealtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,886 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).