Name: Potato Salad Soup
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 5 tablespoons unsalted butter; 1 onion, chopped; 1/2 cup chopped celery; 1/4 cup chopped carrots; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley; 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour; 1 1/2 cups chicken stock; 1 1/2 cups milk; 3 potatoes, cut into 1/4-inch slices; 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce; 1 1/2 teaspoons mustard powder; 1 pinch ground allspice; 3/4 teaspoon celery salt; 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme; 1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt; 2 tablespoons white wine; 1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning; 3 hard-cooked eggs, chopped

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 ↓

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.

Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, celery, carrot, garlic, parsley, flour):

Thymefits better
Cuminfits better
Marjoramfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, celery, carrot, garlic, parsley, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Allspice	1 tsp ground (1.9g)	5
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Potato Salad Soup