Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Veal Olive Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Rub the veal slices with the egg yolk.
Sprinkle bread crumbs over the veal.
Finely shred the lemon peel and add it to the veal.
Add grated nutmeg, pepper, and coarse sea salt.
Roll the veal slices tightly.
Place the rolled veal in a dish and top with ham slices.
Pour the gravy over the veal.
Cover with puff pastry and brush with egg.
Decorate as desired.
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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Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Bread + hamtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,536 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, egg, bread, lemon, pepper, ham):
- Parsleyfits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Sagefits about as well
- Nutmegthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, bread, lemon, pepper, ham. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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