Name: Crawfish Maque Choux
Ingredients: 1/4 cup vegetable oil; 2 pounds crawfish tails; 1 bell pepper; 6 ribs celery; 2 onions; 1 15-ounce can tomato sauce with bits; 1 8-ounce can mushroom stems and pieces; 6 green onions; 2 12-ounce cans shoe peg corn; 2 sprigs parsley; 1 rounded teaspoon salt; 1/4 teaspoon hot sauce

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,099 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Crawfish tails: Provide the main protein and a tender, mildly sweet seafood flavor.
Onions: Build a sweet, savory base as they soften and caramelize in the oil.
Bell pepper: Adds fresh, slightly sweet vegetable flavor and body to the base.
Celery: Contributes aromatic savory flavor and a tender-crisp texture to the base.
Tomato sauce: Adds acidity, body and a rich color that thickens the mixture.
Shoe peg corn: Adds sweetness and a juicy, crisp-tender texture.

The step that matters

Sautéing the crawfish and then cooling it before adding back. Cooking the crawfish briefly and removing it keeps it tender; adding it back late, for only about 10 minutes, avoids toughening the delicate seafood while the vegetables build flavor.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, celery, tomato, sauce, mushroom, corn, parsley):

Capsicumfits better
Carrotfits better
Spinachfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, celery, tomato, sauce, mushroom, corn, parsley. 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
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Corn	1/2 cup kernels (82g)	77
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Crawfish Maque Choux