Name: Stewed Beetroot and Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients: 1 oz. flour (about 2 tablespoons); Mashed potatoes (enough for a border around the dish); Pepper to taste; Salt to taste; 1 oz. butter (about 2 tablespoons); 1 pint milk (about 2 cups); 2 teaspoons vinegar; Beetroot (cooked, peeled, and sliced)

Why it works: Potato and beetroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 330 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Stewed Beetroot and Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

1 oz. flour (about 2 tablespoons)
Mashed potatoes (enough for a border around the dish)
Pepper to taste
Salt to taste
1 oz. butter (about 2 tablespoons)
1 pint milk (about 2 cups)
2 teaspoons vinegar
Beetroot (cooked, peeled, and sliced)

Directions

Peel and dice the onions.
In a frying pan, melt the butter and add the onions; fry without browning.
Sprinkle in the flour, then pour in the milk, stirring until it boils.
Season with salt, pepper, and vinegar.
Carefully boil the beetroot, then cool, peel, and slice it.
Add the sliced beetroot to the sauce and simmer for 30 minutes.
Form the mashed potatoes into a border on a hot dish and place the beetroot in the center.
Bring the sauce to a boil, pour it over the beetroot, and serve.

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.

Potato + beetroottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together330 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + beetroottop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together515 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the beetroot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, potato, pepper, butter, milk, vinegar):

Capsicumfits better
Chivefits better
Shallotfits better
Beetrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, potato, pepper, butter, milk, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.