Name: Spiced Beef Relish
Ingredients: 2 pounds raw, tender beefsteak; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; 1 teaspoon dried sage; 2 tablespoons melted butter; 2 rolled crackers, finely crushed; 2 large eggs, beaten

Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Spiced Beef Relish

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Chop the beefsteak very fine.
In a bowl, combine the chopped beef, salt, pepper, sage, melted butter, crushed crackers, and beaten eggs.
Shape the mixture into a roll.

Bake and serve

Place the roll in a baking dish and baste with a mixture of butter and water.
Bake at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through.
Allow to cool, then cut into slices.

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.

Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Sage + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,312 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Sage + eggtop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,100 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Beefsteak: Forms the main body of the relish, giving it a meaty texture and substance.
Large eggs: Bind the mixture together so the roll holds its shape when sliced.
Crackers: Absorb moisture and add bulk, helping the mixture hold together.
Melted butter: Adds fat and richness, keeping the meat moist as it cooks.

The step that matters

Bake at 350°F (175°C) until cooked through. Raw eggs and meat bind together as they cook, so the roll must reach a safe internal temperature throughout. Underbaking leaves the center raw, while overbaking dries the meat and makes the slices crumbly.