Name: Chicken Noodle Soup with Apple
Ingredients: 3 pounds chicken; 2 qt. water; 2 teaspoons salt; 1 1/2 cup chicken stock; 2 cups celery, chopped; 2 cups carrots, chopped; 1 tart apple, chopped; 1 cup onions, chopped; pepper; 4 cups egg noodles

Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 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.

Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken: Provides the meat for the soup and flavors the broth as it simmers.
Egg noodles: Add starch and chew, soaking up broth while the soup cooks.
Carrots: Add sweetness and body, and hold their shape through long simmering.
Celery: Adds aromatic savoriness and a crisp-tender texture to the soup.
Onions: Build savory depth as they soften and release sweetness into the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the noodles. Noodles keep absorbing liquid and turn soft and bloated if cooked too long, so add them near the end and time them carefully.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, celery, carrot, onion, pepper, egg):

Lemonfits better
Limefits better
Avocadofits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, celery, carrot, onion, pepper, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Apple	1 medium (182g)	95
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

Chicken Noodle Soup with Apple