Name: Court-Bouillon
Ingredients: 4 cups water; 2 tablespoons vinegar; 1 carrot, chopped; 1 onion, chopped; 1 bunch parsley; 1 teaspoon dried thyme; 2 bay leaves; 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon black pepper

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Court-Bouillon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

In a large pot, combine water and vinegar.
Add chopped carrot, onion, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, salt, and pepper.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Finish and use

Strain the broth and use it to cook fish, such as salmon.

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.

Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,563 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the broth and helps draw flavor from the vegetables.
Carrot: Adds subtle sweetness and body to the broth as it simmers.
Onion: Adds savory depth and aromatic flavor to the broth.
Bay leaves: Contribute an aromatic, herbal flavor as the broth simmers.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, carrot, parsley, thyme, pepper):

Parsnipfits better
Shallotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, carrot, parsley, thyme, pepper. 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.