IllustrationWhy it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 34,118 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the soup
Peel, wash, and cut 1/4 lb. artichokes and 1/4 lb. potatoes into small pieces.
Cook the vegetables in 3/4 pint milk and equal parts water until tender.
Rub the cooked vegetables through a sieve, return to saucepan.
Add 1/4 oz. butter, pepper, and salt to taste, boil up, and serve.
Make the parsley sauce
Make the sauce: combine 1 gill of milk, 1 teaspoonful of cornflour, 1 teaspoonful of finely chopped parsley, pepper, salt, and a small bit of butter.
Boil the milk, thicken with the cornflour that has been smoothed with a spoonful of water; boil up, season, and mix with the parsley before serving.
Serve with flageolets
Cook 3 oz. of flagolets until tender.
Season with pepper and salt, and serve with 1/4 pint parsley sauce.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.
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Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,118 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Milk + peppertop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together26,983 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Parsley + saucetop 13% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together6,693 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sauce + peppertop 17% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together15,299 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + parsleytop 17% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together7,011 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Sauce and pepper share little aroma chemistry, yet 15,299 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Artichokes (in the method)
- Provide the main flavour and body of the soup once cooked and sieved.
- Potatoes (in the method)
- Add starch that thickens the soup and gives it a smooth, creamy texture.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and richness to the soup and the parsley sauce.
- Cornflour
- Thickens the parsley sauce as it boils.
The step that matters
Thicken the parsley sauce with cornflour. Cornflour must be smoothed in cold water before it goes into the boiling milk, otherwise it forms lumps. Boiling is needed to fully activate its thickening power, so the sauce sets smooth and glossy.
Flavor stand-ins for the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sauce, pepper):
- Celeryabout as good a flavor fit
- Parsleythe original
- Gingerabout as good a flavor fit
- Nutmegabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sauce, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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.
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