Name: Duck Hot Pot
Ingredients: 1 duck; 12 small dumplings; 12 medium potatoes; 3 large apples; 1 onion; seasoning to taste; gravy

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Duck Hot Pot

Ingredients

Directions

Cut up the duck and ensure it is clean.
Half cook and slice the potatoes.
Scald and chop the onion.
Peel and chop the apples.
Make dumplings from good suet crust, the size of a walnut.
Butter a hot pot dish liberally.
Layer the ingredients: potatoes on the bottom, then duck, onions, apples, seasoning, and finally the dumplings on top.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + appletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together603 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Apple + oniontop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,206 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).