Name: Bouillon Rafraichissant Au Jus D’herbes
Ingredients: 1 large handful of chervil, cleaned and washed; 1 large handful of sorrel, cleaned and washed; 1 large handful of Swiss chard, cleaned and washed; 1 large handful of purslane, cleaned and washed; Leaves from 2 heads of lettuce, cleaned and washed; 2 cups of boiling water; a pinch of salt; 2 ounces of fresh butter

Why it works: Chervil and sorrel match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 247 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Bouillon Rafraichissant Au Jus D’herbes

Ingredients

1 large handful of chervil, cleaned and washed
1 large handful of sorrel, cleaned and washed
1 large handful of Swiss chard, cleaned and washed
1 large handful of purslane, cleaned and washed
Leaves from 2 heads of lettuce, cleaned and washed
2 cups of boiling water
a pinch of salt
2 ounces of fresh butter

Directions

Chop the chervil, sorrel, Swiss chard, purslane, and lettuce leaves.
Add the chopped herbs to 2 cups of boiling water.
Boil for a second, then cover and let infuse for 20 minutes.
Add a pinch of salt and 2 ounces of fresh butter.
Strain the broth through a fine sieve.
Serve 2 cups in the morning on an empty stomach and 2 cups in the evening, 2 hours after dinner.

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.

Chervil + sorreltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together247 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Chervil + purslanetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together21 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Sorrel + purslanetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together21 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Chervil + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together396 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Sorrel + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together317 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Swap the chard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chervil, sorrel, purslane, lettuce, butter):

Chivefits better
Beetrootfits better
Leekfits better
Chardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chervil, sorrel, purslane, lettuce, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.