Name: Plain Gravy Kettle
Ingredients: 1 small quantity of liquid; boiling broth; mushrooms (optional); 1 bunch of parsley; green onions (or 1 Portugal onion); 1-2 thick slices of unboiled ham (optional)

Why it works: Parsley and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Plain Gravy Kettle

Ingredients

Directions

Pour a small quantity of liquid into a stewpan and reduce it by rapid boiling until it forms a glaze.
Once the glaze has the proper color, add boiling broth in small portions, shaking the stewpan to detach the glaze.
Stew the meat gently for 3-4 hours with mushrooms, parsley, and green onions or a Portugal onion.
For richer flavor, add 1-2 thick slices of unboiled ham.

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.

Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,626 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Mushroom + parsleytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,132 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Mushroom + hamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,486 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Onion + hamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,159 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).