Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Stewed Turtle
Ingredients
Directions
Cut up the turtle head and boil it with the shell on until tender.
Remove the under shell and pick the meat into pieces.
Clean the top shell thoroughly.
Add crackers, onions, parsley, allspice, black pepper, and butter to the meat.
Return the mixture to the shell, top with sliced lemon, and bake.
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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Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + allspicetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,289 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,395 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, allspice, pepper, butter, lemon):
- Carrotfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, allspice, pepper, butter, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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