Name: Chicken Curry with Rice
Ingredients: 2 quarts chicken stock; 1 slice onion; 1 stalk celery; ½ cup cooked rice; 1 tablespoon butter; ½ teaspoon curry powder; Salt and pepper to taste; 1 tablespoon flour (optional); 1 cup cream (optional)

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Curry with Rice

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

In a pot, boil the chicken stock, onion, and celery slowly for 30 minutes.
Strain the mixture and add curry powder, rice, butter, salt, and pepper.
Bring to a boil.
For a creamy version, stir in flour and cream before serving.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,769 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Celery + ricetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,169 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, rice, butter, pepper, flour, cream):

Garlicfits better
Turmericfits about as well
Celerythe original
Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, rice, butter, pepper, flour, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.