Name: Fricassee of Fowl a LA Francaise
Ingredients: 3 young fowls, prepared for cutting; 1 onion, finely chopped; 1 small head of celery, white part chopped; 1 carrot, yellow part thinly sliced; bouquet of thyme

Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Fricassee of Fowl a LA Francaise

Ingredients

3 young fowls, prepared for cutting
1 onion, finely chopped
1 small head of celery, white part chopped
1 carrot, yellow part thinly sliced
bouquet of thyme

Directions

Singe the fowls over a flame to remove hairs.
Use a small knife to remove young feathers.
Cut off the legs just above the joint and remove the pinions.
Hold the fowl on its side and cut around the skin, leaving the breast full.
Separate the breast from the back at the joint.
Remove the thigh-bone from each leg and tuck the flesh around the drumstick.
Shape each leg like a miniature leg of mutton and arrange them in a three-quart stewpan.
Cut the backs in two and place them in the center of the stewpan with the pinions, necks, livers, and gizzard, ensuring the gall is removed from the livers.
Add the chopped onion, celery, carrot, and bouquet of thyme.

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.

Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,563 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,193 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,171 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).