Name: Roasted Chestnut Soup with Wild Mushrooms and Crispy Pork Belly
Yield: Serves 6.
Ingredients: 1/2 meaty pork belly, up to 5 lb., fat trimmed to 1/4 inch on skin side; 3 garlic cloves, minced; 2 tsp. pink salt; 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbs. kosher salt; 1 Tbs. plus 2 tsp. firmly packed light brown sugar; 5 Tbs. plus 1 tsp. coarsely ground peppercorns; 1 piece long pepper; 1 Tbs. plus 1 tsp. juniper berries; 5 bay leaves; 3 1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg; 6 fresh thyme sprigs; 1/2 cup diced pancetta (1/4-inch dice); 1/2 yellow onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice; 2 celery stalks, cut into 1/4-inch dice; 2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice; 2 cups blanched and roasted chestnuts, plus chopped chestnuts for garnish; 4 cups chicken stock; 1 bouquet garni tied with twine; Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste; 2 Tbs. unsalted butter; 1/2 large shallot, finely chopped; 4 oz. wild mushrooms, such as chanterelle, black trumpet or porcini, roughly chopped if large; 1/2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves; Celery leaves for garnish

Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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.

Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,108 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Nutmeg + thymetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,907 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 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 onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, garlic, clove, sugar, pepper, nutmeg, thyme):

Capsicumfits better
Shallotfits better
Spinachfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, garlic, clove, sugar, pepper, nutmeg, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pork	100g cooked	242
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Shallot	1 tbsp minced (10g)	7
Long Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Celery Stalks	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Chestnut	not in our table	0
Chanterelle	not in our table	0
Porcini	not in our table	0

Roasted Chestnut Soup with Wild Mushrooms and Crispy Pork Belly