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How to Cook a Plain Dinner

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

How to Cook a Plain Dinner

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the potatoes until done, then drain and cover to steam.

  2. Warm a little cream and butter, then mash the potatoes and season them.

  3. Dish the mashed potatoes and place them in a warming oven.

  4. Prepare the roast beef and make the gravy.

  5. Fill the glasses with water and set the dinner on the table.

  6. Arrange the dessert plates, apples, cream, cups, and saucers for coffee on a side table.

  7. Call the family to dinner.

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.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Potato + beeftop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, cream, butter, beef, bread):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Avocadofits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, cream, butter, beef, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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