Name: Chicken and Ham Patties
Ingredients: 1 cold chicken, breast or white fleshy parts, skinned and finely minced; ½ quantity of lean ham or tongue, finely minced; ¼ cup veal gravy or jelly from roast veal or lamb; 1 tablespoon butter, rolled in flour; 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel; ¼ teaspoon white pepper; ¼ teaspoon salt; a pinch of cayenne; 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Chicken and Ham Patties

Ingredients

1 cold chicken, breast or white fleshy parts, skinned and finely minced
½ quantity of lean ham or tongue, finely minced
¼ cup veal gravy or jelly from roast veal or lamb
1 tablespoon butter, rolled in flour
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
¼ teaspoon white pepper
¼ teaspoon salt
a pinch of cayenne
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Directions

In a small saucepan, combine veal gravy or jelly with butter and flour to thicken.
Add grated lemon peel, white pepper, salt, cayenne, and lemon juice to the mixture.
Stir in the minced chicken and ham until heated through.
Fill the pre-baked patties with the hot mixture, being careful not to overfill.

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.

Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Chicken + vealtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,243 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).
Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,497 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Ham + vealtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,264 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, ham, veal, butter, flour, lemon):

Parsleyfits better
Thymefits better
Marjoramfits better
White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, ham, veal, butter, flour, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.