Name: Moulded Potted Meat or Fish
Ingredients: potted ham or any other meat; clarified butter; savory jelly; lobster butter (optional)

Why it works: Ham and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,475 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Moulded Potted Meat or Fish

Ingredients

potted ham or any other meat
clarified butter
savory jelly
lobster butter (optional)

Directions

Press the potted ham or meat closely into a pan or mold.
Pour a thin layer of clarified butter on top and let it cool completely.
When ready to serve, dip a cloth in hot water and wrap it around the mold.
Loosen the meat gently from the mold.
Serve with diced savory jelly and optionally garnish with lobster butter.

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 + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Butter + lobstertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Ham + lobstertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together82 recipes

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