Name: Cornish Hen with Mediterranean Garlic-Spice Rub
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 15 cloves FOR SPICE RUB; 2-½ teaspoons Garlic; 2-½ teaspoons Seasoned Salt; 1-½ teaspoon Hot Paprika; 1-½ teaspoon Ground Allspice; 1 teaspoon Dried Thyme; ½ teaspoons Ground Black Pepper; 1 whole Ground Nutmeg; 2 Tablespoons Lemon Or Lime, Juice Of; 4 whole Olive Oil; 1 whole FOR THE HENS:; 2 stalks (1 1/2 Lb. Size) Cornish Game Hens; 2 whole Sweet Onion, Roughly Chopped Or Cut In Large Pieces; 2 cups Celery, Cleaned And Chopped In Large Pieces

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,331 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,077 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,973 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 garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, allspice, thyme, pepper, nutmeg, lemon, olive):

Marjoramfits better
Cinnamonfits better
Winter savoryfits better
Garlicthe original

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

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Allspice	1 tsp ground (1.9g)	5
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Cornish Hen with Mediterranean Garlic-Spice Rub