Why it works: Mace and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
A Goose Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare a pie crust using 2 cups of flour.
Roll out the crust to fit a large goose.
Boil the pickled dried tongue until tender, then peel and remove the root.
Bone the goose and the large fowl.
Mix the mace, pepper, and salt together.
Season the fowl and goose with the spice mixture.
Layer the fowl in the pie crust.
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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Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,257 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + macetop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,974 recipes
Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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 mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, pepper):
- Jalapenofits better
- Turmericfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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