Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Beef Palates, Stewed
Ingredients
Directions
Simmer the palates for several hours until they can be peeled.
Cut the palates into slices or leave them whole as preferred.
Stew the palates in a rich gravy until tender.
Season with cayenne, salt, and ketchup before serving.
If the gravy is clear, add butter and flour.
For a white sauce, boil the palates in a mixture of cream, butter, flour, and mushroom powder, adding a little pounded mace.
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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Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,232 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, ketchup, butter, flour, cream, mushroom):
- Nutmegfits better
- Celeryfits better
- Thymefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, ketchup, butter, flour, cream, mushroom. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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