Why it works: Meat and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,594 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Braising Meat
Ingredients
Directions
Remove the tape from the fillet and place it in a dish.
Moisten the meat with equal parts Madeira and gravy.
Cover the meat with a round of buttered paper to prevent browning.
Braise the meat in a pan with a mixture of butter and water.
Cut bacon into small strips, about ⅛ inch square and 2 inches long.
Lard the breasts of birds and the backs and thighs of hares with the bacon strips.
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.
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Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,594 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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