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Sample Dinner

A simple boiled dish of potatoes and neck chops seasoned with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Sample Dinner

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the potatoes and neck chops in the inner vessel of the Duplex boilerette.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt, and add onion if desired.

  3. Add water if gravy is needed, but it's not necessary.

  4. Close the lid tightly.

Cook

  1. Pour ½ pint of water into the outer vessel, using hot water for quick cooking or cold for longer cooking.

  2. Light the lamp, set it on the cooking ring, and place the boilerette on top.

  3. Ensure the setup is safe from pets and drafts.

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.

  1. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the stew and thicken the liquid as their starch breaks down while cooking.
Neck chops
Release fat and juices into the stew, adding meaty flavour and richness to the liquid.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens in the cooking liquid.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, pepper. 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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