Name: Pork Gravy
Ingredients: trimmings of any kind of meat; 1 onion; toasted bread or dried flour; tea-cupful of the liquor from boiled meat

Why it works: Meat and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,924 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Pork Gravy

Ingredients

trimmings of any kind of meat
1 onion
toasted bread or dried flour
tea-cupful of the liquor from boiled meat

Directions

Make a broth using the trimmings of any meat, flavored with an onion.
Thicken the broth slightly with either toasted bread or dried flour.
Ensure the broth does not touch the rind of the pork to avoid sogginess.
For boiled meat, use a tea-cupful of the skimmed liquor from boiling, free from fat.
If using sauces, pour part or all of the sauce over the meat along with the liquor.

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.

Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,924 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,676 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Bread + teatop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together383 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,364 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + teatop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together207 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).