Name: Clam Soup
Ingredients: 1 quart milk; minced clams; salt; pepper; onion juice

Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Clam Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Heat the milk in a pot until hot.
Add the minced clams to the hot milk.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Season with salt, pepper, and a little onion juice.
Serve piping hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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.

Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Clam + oniontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together568 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Milk + clamtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together636 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Milk + oniontop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,418 recipes

Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26,984 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).