Name: Italian Wedding Soup
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 1 h 45 min
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients: 1 pound ground beef; 1 small onion, grated; 4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese; 2 tablespoons Italian bread crumbs; 1½ teaspoons dried parsley; 1 teaspoon dried basil; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 egg whites; 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts; 2 tablespoons unsalted butter; 1 small onion, diced; ½ cup sliced carrots (approximately 2 carrots); ½ cup sliced celery (approximately 2 stalks); 1 clove garlic, minced; 12 cups chicken broth; Salt & pepper to taste; ¾ cup acini di pepi or other small pasta; 8 ounces fresh spinach, chopped

Why it works: Parsley and basil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,351 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. 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.

Parsley + basiltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,351 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Beef + chickentop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,148 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,814 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

Swap the basil

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, parmesan cheese, bread, parsley, egg, chicken):

Garlicfits better
Thymefits better
Celeryfits better
Basilthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, parmesan cheese, bread, parsley, egg, chicken. 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
Beef	100g cooked	250
Pasta	1 cup cooked (140g)	220
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Parmesan Cheese	1 oz (28g)	110
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Spinach	1 cup raw (30g)	7
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Italian Wedding Soup