Name: Oxtail Bourguinonne
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 8 slices fatty bacon, chopped; Olive oil; 3 large fresh Italian parsley sprigs; 3 large fresh thyme sprigs; 2 large fresh bay leaves, bruised; 1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour; 1 tablespoon butter; 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg; 4 to 4 1/4 pounds meaty oxtail pieces, trimmed of excess fat; 2 cups chopped onions; 1 cup diced carrot plus 6 medium carrots, cut into 2-inch chunks; 4 large garlic cloves, peeled; 1 minced, 3 left whole; 1 3/4 cups beef broth; 1 1/2 cups red Burgundy wine (such as Beaujolais); 1 pound crimini (baby bella) mushrooms, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices; 12 small (1-inch-diameter) shallots, blanched 1 minute, peeled

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. 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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Thyme + carrottop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,563 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,907 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 (olive, parsley, thyme, flour, butter, nutmeg, carrot):

Parsnipfits better
Shallotfits better
Leekfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, parsley, thyme, flour, butter, nutmeg, carrot. 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
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1

Oxtail Bourguinonne