Name: Head Cheese
Ingredients: heads of meat (cleaned); brine (for salting); saltpetre (optional); pepper; marjoram; beef bungs

Why it works: Pepper and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,609 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Head Cheese

Ingredients

Directions

Clean the heads thoroughly and remove the eyes and ears.
Salt the heads in brine for a few days, adding a little saltpetre to harden the meat and improve color.
Wash the heads and cook slowly for 4 to 5 hours.
Cut the cooked meat into strips and stuff into beef bungs.
Season the mixture with pepper and marjoram.
Return the stuffed bungs to the kettle to shrink the casing.
Place the bungs in cold water for 10 minutes, then press between boards with a heavy weight.
Let it stand for 12 hours.

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 + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,609 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Meat + beeftop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,533 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Marjoram + beeftop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together912 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).