Why it works: Thyme and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 214 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Bouquet Garni
Ingredients
Directions
Gather fresh herbs from your garden or market.
Examine and discard any poor or sickly sprigs.
Wash the herbs and shake off excess water.
Tie the herbs into small bundles and wrap them in mosquito netting.
Hang the bundles leaves down in a warm, dry place until dry and brittle.
Pick the leaves off and place them in clean, large-mouthed bottles.
Cork and label the bottles.
When needed, rub the herbs fine between your fingers and pass through a sieve.
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.
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Thyme + summer savorytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together214 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sage + summer savorytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together237 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,485 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,768 recipes
Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).
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Sage + basiltop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together223 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mint
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sage, thyme, summer savory, basil):
- Marjoramfits better
- Winter savoryfits better
- Rosemaryfits better
- Mintthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sage, thyme, summer savory, basil. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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