Name: Potted Meats and Fish
Ingredients: 2 pounds of meat (veal or chicken); curled butter; cream (optional); green butter, ham butter, or egg butter for decoration; jelly (for serving); parsley and eggs (for garnish)

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Potted Meats and Fish

Ingredients

2 pounds of meat (veal or chicken)
curled butter
cream (optional)
green butter, ham butter, or egg butter for decoration
jelly (for serving)
parsley and eggs (for garnish)

Directions

Form a basket shape with the meat, using a flat cap wire for the handle.
Cover both sides of the basket with curled butter.
Add cream to the meat while pounding for a whiter appearance, if desired.
Decorate the basket with green butter, ham butter, or egg butter.
Serve the basket on a block of stiff jelly to prevent cracking.
Garnish with a plain green salad or parsley with eggs.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,594 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Meat + parsleytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,040 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).