Name: Chestnut and Celery Root Soup with Sage Croutons and Bacon
Ingredients: 1/2 loaf (1-lb. loaf) good-quality French or Italian bread; 2 Tbs. unsalted butter; 2 Tbs. olive oil; 2 garlic cloves, crushed; 4 tsp. chopped fresh sage; Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste; 6 bacon slices; 1 yellow onion, chopped; 3 celery stalks, chopped; 1/4 tsp. celery seed; 6 cups chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth; 1 celery root, about 1 lb., peeled and chopped; 1 jar (15 oz.) purchased steamed peeled chestnuts; 1/2 cup half-and-half

Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. 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.

Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Clove + sagetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together731 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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 (bread, butter, olive, garlic, sage, pepper, onion):

Thymefits better
Parsleyfits better
Marjoramfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, olive, garlic, sage, pepper, onion. 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
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Celery Stalks	1 stalk (40g)	6
Celery Seed	1 stalk (40g)	6
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Sage	1 tsp ground (0.7g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Chestnut	not in our table	0

Chestnut and Celery Root Soup with Sage Croutons and Bacon