Name: Fridge-cleaner Vegetable Stock
Ingredients: bay leaves; black peppercorns; potatoes; celery; carrot; onions; parsley; garlic (I love garlic, but you may not, so this — as all other ingredients — is optional); any other bit or cast-off part of vegetable you happen to have around; any old fresh herbs you have lying around that are not sightly enough to use — even dried is not a crime if you don't have any fresh; salt to taste (I use none, and then salt the stock as I need/use it)

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. 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.

Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions: Add sweetness and savoury depth to the stock as they soften and release their flavour.
Carrot: Adds natural sweetness and body to the stock during long simmering.
Celery: Contributes aromatic, savoury flavour that builds the stock's base taste.
Potatoes: Release starch slowly, giving the stock a slightly fuller body.

The step that matters

Long, gentle simmer. Extended slow simmering draws flavour and body out of the vegetables and bones gradually. A hard rolling boil can cloud the stock and make it taste harsh, so keep it at a gentle simmer.

Swap the garlic

The recipe marks garlic as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, celery, carrot, onion, parsley):

Thymefits better
Dillfits better
Marjoramfits better
Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, celery, carrot, onion, 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
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Vegetable	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Fridge-cleaner Vegetable Stock