Name: Potato Stuffing for Fowl
Ingredients: 2 cups hot mashed potatoes; 1 cup bread crumbs; ½ cup salt pork (chopped); 1 teaspoon onion juice; ½ teaspoon sage; ½ cup butter (melted); 1 cup peas (canned or garden); 1 teaspoon salt; 1 egg

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Stuffing for Fowl

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, mix the hot mashed potatoes with the bread crumbs.
Add the chopped salt pork, onion juice, sage, melted butter, peas, salt, and egg.
Combine all ingredients thoroughly.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,668 recipes

Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Potato + peastop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,016 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, bread, pork, onion, butter, peas, egg):

Garlicfits better
Parsleyfits better
Thymefits better
Sagethe original

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