Name: Hungarian Goulash
Ingredients: 2 pounds of rump of beef into 1 inch squares; 2 tablespoons melted lard; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon flour; 1 cup hot water; 1 tablespoon chopped parsley; 1 inch squares; 2 faltspoons paprika; 1 small sliced carrot; 2 small sliced onions; 2 cloves; 1 bayleaf; 2 peeled; 1 bean garlic; 80 old country recipes; cloves; parsley

Why it works: Parsley and carrot 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.

Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 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

Rump of beef: Becomes tender through long, slow cooking as its connective tissue breaks down.
Flour: Thickens the cooking liquid into a richer sauce.
Onions: Soften and sweeten as they cook, adding depth to the sauce.
Paprika: Gives the goulash its colour and characteristic sweet, earthy flavour.
Potatoes (in the method): Release starch as they cook, adding body to the stew.
Tomato sauce (in the method): Adds acidity and savoury flavour that balances the richness of the beef.

The step that matters

Cover and let cook slowly for 30 minutes. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil lets the beef become tender without toughening. Boiling hard forces the meat proteins to tighten and dries the sauce.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour, parsley, carrot, onion, garlic):

Cuminfits better
Thymefits better
Marjoramfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, parsley, carrot, onion, garlic. 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
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Beef	100g cooked	250
Lard	1 tbsp (12.8g)	115
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0
Bean	not in our table	0

Hungarian Goulash