Name: Pressed Veal and Corned Beef Loaf
Ingredients: equal amounts of veal and corned beef; 6 sheets French gelatine; salt; pepper

Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Pressed Veal and Corned Beef Loaf

Ingredients

equal amounts of veal and corned beef
6 sheets French gelatine
salt
pepper

Directions

Boil the veal and corned beef separately until tender.
Grind the meats separately.
In the veal cooking liquid, melt the gelatine thoroughly.
Moisten the ground meats with the gelatine mixture, seasoning the corned beef with pepper and the veal with salt and pepper.
In a pan, layer the meat to a thickness of ¾ inch, patting it down smooth and hard.
Alternate layers of veal and corned beef to create two narrow loaves with three layers each.

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.

Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,784 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,049 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).