Name: Ox Tail with Prunes and Sultanas
Ingredients: 1 ox tail; French plums (about 12), stewed in claret; sultana raisins (about 1 cup), picked and cooked; coarse sea salt (to taste); pepper (to taste); vegetable purée (of your choice); sweet pickles (for serving)

Why it works: Plum and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,052 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Ox Tail with Prunes and Sultanas

Ingredients

1 ox tail
French plums (about 12), stewed in claret
sultana raisins (about 1 cup), picked and cooked
coarse sea salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
vegetable purée (of your choice)
sweet pickles (for serving)

Directions

Cook the ox tail as directed in the recipe.
Add the stewed French plums and cooked sultana raisins to the pot.
Season with coarse sea salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with a purée of your preferred vegetable.
Offer sweet pickles separately at the table.

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.

Plum + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,052 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Plum + raisintop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Raisin + peppertop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together582 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).