Name: Italian Ravioli
Ingredients: Leaves of white beet or endive; Firm or fast curd; Eggs; Grated Parmesan cheese; Grated bread; Flour

Why it works: Endive and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 111 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Italian Ravioli

Ingredients

Directions

Wash and pick the leaves of white beet and endive.
Boil the leaves in a small amount of water until done.
Squeeze out the water and chop the leaves finely.
Mix the chopped leaves with half the quantity of curd, one egg per pound, and a spoonful of grated Parmesan.
Add enough grated bread to form long oval shapes, each about the size of an egg.
Season well and roll the ravioli in flour.

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.

Endive + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together111 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Parmesan cheese + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together577 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together106,462 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Endive + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together39 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the endive

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, parmesan cheese, bread, flour):

Asparagusfits better
Spinachfits better
Chivefits better
Endivethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, parmesan cheese, bread, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.