Name: Boiled Hump-stkak with Onion Gravy
Ingredients: 2 large onions; ½ cup water; ½ pint good broth; Mushroom ketchup to taste; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Onion and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,626 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Boiled Hump-stkak with Onion Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Peel and slice the onions.
Place them in a quart stew pan with water and cover.
Cook on low heat until the water boils and the onions are slightly browned.
Add broth and boil until the onions are tender.
Strain the broth, chop the onions finely, and season with mushroom ketchup, pepper, and salt.
Add the onions back to the pan and let it boil gently for five minutes.
Pour the onion gravy over the broiled rump steak.

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.

Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,626 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + ketchuptop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Onion + ketchuptop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,997 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).