Name: A Dunelm of Cold Veal or Fowl
Ingredients: small mushrooms; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 pound minced veal; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ½ cup cream

Why it works: Mushroom and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

A Dunelm of Cold Veal or Fowl

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

Stew small mushrooms in their own liquid with 2 tablespoons of butter for 15 minutes.
Mince the mushrooms very small and add them with their liquid to the minced veal.

Season and finish

Season with pepper and coarse sea salt. Mix in ½ cup of cream.
Rub in a bit of butter before serving.

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.

Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + vealtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,446 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + creamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,500 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Small mushrooms: Add earthy flavour and moisture to the minced meat, with their liquid adding savour.
Butter: Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the mushrooms and the finished dish.
Minced veal: Forms the body of the dish, giving a tender, spreadable texture when cold.
Cream: Adds moisture and richness, softening the mixture for a smoother texture.

“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.