Name: Modern Cookery
Ingredients: 1 small teaspoon corn; 1 large bunch savory herbs; 1 calf's foot (if convenient); fresh meat (including veal); beef (additional weight); spoonsful of glaze; 1 small ham (well soaked and cleaned)

Why it works: Veal and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,784 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

Simmer the corn, savory herbs, and calf's foot for 5 to 6 hours.
Boil the soaked and cleaned ham with the beef for 3.5 to 4 hours in the broth.

Use the broth

Use this broth as a base for richer soups and gravies.
Pour the broth over fresh meat instead of water to make a consomme or strong jellied stock.
Add additional beef and glaze to convert it into an amber-colored gravy-soup.
Truss and stew poultry, pigeons, or game in the broth until tender.
Serve immediately with a good sauce.

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.

Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,784 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Corn + beeftop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,028 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Meat + beeftop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,533 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Beef + hamtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,729 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's foot: Adds gelatin, which gives the finished broth body and a jellied set when chilled.
Fresh meat: Releases flavour and gelatin into the broth, enriching it as a consomme or strong stock.
Beef: Adds meaty depth and richness to the broth and to the amber gravy-soup.
Glaze: Adds sweetness and browning, turning the gravy-soup an amber colour.

“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.