Name: Mutton or Veal with Poached Eggs
Ingredients: cold cooked mutton or veal, minced; coarse sea salt; black pepper; mushroom sauce; good stock; hot potatoes; milk; butter; parsley, for garnish

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mutton or Veal with Poached Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Mince the cold meat, removing any fat or gristle.
Season the meat with salt, pepper, and a little mushroom sauce.
Heat the mixture over low heat with a little stock, but do not boil.
Mash the hot potatoes and mix in a little milk and butter.
Form a wall of the mashed potatoes around a platter.
Place the minced meat in the center and top with poached eggs.
Garnish with parsley 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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,855 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 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 parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, pepper, mushroom, sauce, potato, milk, butter):

Thymefits about as well
Parsleythe original
Garlicfits about as well
Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, mushroom, sauce, potato, milk, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.