Why it works: Mustard and watercress match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 293 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Cold Beef Bouillie, a LA Maltre
Ingredients
Directions
Slice the cold beef into pieces about ½ inch thick and 3 fingers wide.
In a bowl, mix chopped onion or shallots, pepper, coarse sea salt, mustard, egg, oil, and vinegar.
Pour the mixture over the sliced beef.
Garnish with watercress or scraped horseradish before serving.
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.
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Mustard + watercresstop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together293 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + mustardtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,092 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mustard + vinegartop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14,067 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,430 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
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, mustard, egg, vinegar, watercress):
- Horseradishfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, mustard, egg, vinegar, watercress. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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