Name: Potted Hare
Ingredients: 4 lbs Australian beef; 3 lbs Australian rabbit; 2 lbs ground rice; powdered savory herbs, to taste; cloves, to taste; allspice, to taste

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Potted Hare

Ingredients

Directions

Combine the Australian beef and rabbit in a mincing machine and grind them together.
Add the ground rice, savory herbs, cloves, and allspice.
Mix everything thoroughly and pass it through the mincing machine again.
Transfer the mixture to a mortar and beat it until well combined.
Pack the mixture into pots and seal.

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.

Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together252 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,265 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Rabbit + ricetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together252 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Rice + clovetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,982 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).