Name: Shellfish with Butter Broth and Honey Emulsion
Yield: Makes 10 to 12 servings
Ingredients: 2 cups dry white wine; 1 cup water; 1 cup peeled finely chopped carrots; 1 cup finely chopped celery; 1 cup finely chopped white onion; 2 bay leaves; 2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns; 2 teaspoons whole coriander seeds; 8 large fresh Italian parsley sprigs; 20 littleneck clams, scrubbed; 30 mussels, scrubbed, debearded; 2 11- to 12-ounce frozen lobster tails, thawed; 1/4 cup water; 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces; 8 ounces crabmeat, picked over; 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley; 1 cup water; 1 tablespoon honey; 1 large egg yolk; Special equipment: Immersion blender

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).
Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Coriander + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,062 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Carrot + coriandertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,297 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, carrot, celery, onion, parsley, clam, lobster):

Thymefits better
Marjoramfits better
Fennelfits better
Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, carrot, celery, onion, parsley, clam, lobster. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Shrimp	100g cooked	99
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Honey	1 tbsp (21g)	64
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Water	not in our table	0
Coriander	not in our table	0
Seed	not in our table	0

Shellfish with Butter Broth and Honey Emulsion