Name: Olla Podrida
Ingredients: various meats (such as beef, pork, and chicken); chickpeas; various vegetables (such as carrots, potatoes, and green beans); spices (such as saffron and paprika); coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt'); water

Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,690 recipes. Both carry 12-methyltridecanal, which smells tallowy, beefy. The science ↓

Olla Podrida

Ingredients

various meats (such as beef, pork, and chicken)
chickpeas
various vegetables (such as carrots, potatoes, and green beans)
spices (such as saffron and paprika)
coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')
water

Directions

In a large pot, combine the meats and cover with water.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for several hours.
Add chickpeas and chopped vegetables to the pot.
Season with spices and coarse sea salt.
Continue to simmer until all ingredients are tender.
Serve hot, ensuring a mix of meats and vegetables in each bowl.

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 + porktop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,690 recipes

Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
Pork + chickentop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,417 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Beef + chickentop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,148 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Potato + green beanstop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

Swap the green beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, beef, pork, chicken, chickpea, carrot, potato):

Tomatofits better
Onionfits better
Capsicumfits better
Green beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, beef, pork, chicken, chickpea, carrot, potato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.