Name: Potted Veal and Bacon
Ingredients: thin slices of veal; thin slices of bacon; dried sweet basil or summer savory, finely powdered; grated horseradish; coarse sea salt; juice of 1 lemon; catsup

Why it works: Basil and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,823 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Potted Veal and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Layer bacon and veal in a stew-pan.
Sprinkle powdered herbs, grated horseradish, and a little salt between layers.
Squeeze lemon juice over the top layer.
Cover tightly and bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 2 to 3 hours.
Remove from oven and drain off the gravy.
Pour a little catsup over the top and press down with a heavy weight.
Store in a tightly covered pot.

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.

Basil + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,823 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Horseradish + lemontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,155 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Basil + horseradishtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together60 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Veal + basiltop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together345 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).