Name: Rabbit Soup
Ingredients: liquor from boiled rabbit; ½ cup rice; 1 teaspoon minced parsley; 1 onion; ½ cup milk; salt to taste; pepper to taste; 1 ounce butter; 1 well-whisked egg (optional)

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Rabbit Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer the onion in the rabbit liquor until flavored.
Strain the mixture and add the rice.
Cook until the rice is tender, about 20 minutes.
Stir in the parsley, pepper, salt, milk, and butter.
If desired, stir in the well-whisked egg just 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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice: Softens as it cooks, thickening the soup and giving it body.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Milk: Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, softening the broth's savory edge.
Egg: Sets gently in the hot soup, adding body and richness if used.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, rice, parsley, milk, pepper, butter, egg):

Potatofits better
Asparagusfits better
Capsicumfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, rice, parsley, milk, pepper, butter, egg. 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.