Name: Collared Pig
Ingredients: 1 pig, cleaned and prepared; light forcemeat; slips of lean ham; pickled cucumbers; fat bacon; white meat of fowls; omelet made from eggs (whites and yolks); beaten spices; broth (enough to cover the pig)

Why it works: Ham and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,095 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Collared Pig

Ingredients

Directions

Season the inside of the pig with beaten spices.
Layer the forcemeat, ham, pickled cucumbers, bacon, and fowl alternately inside the pig.
Roll up the pig, wrap it in a cloth, tie each end, and sew the middle.
Place it in a stew pan and cover with broth. Stew for 2.5 hours.
Remove from the broth, tie the ends tighter, and press between two boards with a weight.
Once cold, unwrap, trim, and serve whole or sliced with chopped savory jelly.

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.

Ham + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,095 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,526 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + eggtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,432 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Cucumber + eggtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,346 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cucumber + meattop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together323 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).