Name: To Pot Beef
Ingredients: 3 pounds lean beef; ¼ cup saltpetre; coarse sea salt; black pepper; allspice; 1 pound butter

Why it works: Pepper and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Pot Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Rub the beef with saltpetre and let it sit for 24 hours.
Afterward, rub it with coarse sea salt and let it sit for 3 to 4 days.
Dry the beef with a cloth.
Season the beef with black pepper and allspice.
Place the beef in a small pan that can hold it.
Add 1 pound of butter 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.

Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,395 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,847 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Beef + allspicetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,940 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).