Name: Copycat Panera Broccoli Cheddar Soup
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 1 h
Yield: 4
Ingredients: ½ sticks Butter; ½ whole Medium Yellow Onion, Chopped; 2 cloves Garlic, Minced; 2 cups Half-And-Half (or You Can Use Half Milk And Half Heavy Cream); 3 cups Chicken Stock; ¼ cups Corn Starch: You May Need A Little More To Reach Your Desired Thickness; ¼ teaspoons Nutmeg; 2 whole Bay Leaves; 1 whole Large Carrot, Grated; 4 cups Broccli Florets (about One Head); 1 pinch Salt/pepper To Taste; 2-½ cups Grated Cheddar Cheese

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).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Garlic + chickentop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,850 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,814 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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 (butter, onion, garlic, milk, chicken, corn, nutmeg):

Cinnamonfits better
Cuminfits better
Thymefits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, garlic, milk, chicken, corn, nutmeg. 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
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Cheddar Cheese	1 oz (28g)	113
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Copycat Panera Broccoli Cheddar Soup