Name: Modern Cookery
Ingredients: 1 calf's foot; 1 calf's head skin; 2 dozen mushroom buttons; salt; ham; herbs; sherry or Madeira (optional); 2 to 3 tablespoons Harvey's sauce (optional)

Why it works: Mushroom and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,176 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol, which smells smoky, clove. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Prepare a well-flavored, deeply-colored stock using a calf's foot and the skin of a calf's head.
Clean the mushroom buttons with salt and a cloth, then wipe them dry and slice them.

Simmer and finish

Simmer the ham and herbs together for about 30 minutes.
Add the sliced mushrooms to the simmering mixture.
Optionally, stir in sherry or Madeira and Harvey's sauce to enhance flavor and color.

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.

Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,176 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).
Ham + sherrytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
Mushroom + hamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,486 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Mushroom + saucetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,480 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ham + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,314 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Calf's foot: Adds gelatin and body, giving the stock a richer mouthfeel.
Calf's head skin: Contributes gelatin and body, helping the stock become richer and more viscous.
Mushroom buttons: Add savory, earthy flavor, deepening the stock's overall taste.
Ham: Contributes salty, savory meat flavor to the stock.

“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.