Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Fowl or Chicken Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Prepare 2 quarts of veal stock and add chopped carrot, onion, celery, parsley, and sweet herbs.
Cut the fowl or chicken into four pieces and add to the stock.
Boil or simmer gently until the chicken is tender.
Finish and serve
Strain the soup and add the beaten egg yolks, pepper, and salt to taste.
Cut the best meat from the fowl into neat pieces and add to the soup.
Warm the soup well and serve.
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.
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Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,810 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal stock
- Forms the savory liquid base that carries the flavor of the whole soup.
- Fowl or chicken
- Supplies the meat and body that becomes tender during gentle simmering.
- Beaten egg yolks
- Thicken the soup slightly and add richness when stirred in off the heat.
The step that matters
Adding the beaten egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat and can curdle or scramble if the soup is boiling when they are added. Keep the soup warm, not boiling, and stir steadily.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, celery, parsley, chicken, egg, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Leekfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, celery, parsley, chicken, egg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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