Name: Nondescript Meat Soups
Ingredients: 8 oz farinaceous (rice, macaroni, or vermicelli); 1 quart stock (white or brown); 1 onion; 1 leek; chopped parsley

Why it works: Onion and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,326 recipes. Both carry ethyl butyrate, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Nondescript Meat Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the farinaceous in boiling water until tender.
In a separate pot, heat the stock.
Add the cooked farinaceous to the stock.
Chop the onion and leek, then add to the soup.
Stir in chopped parsley before serving.

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.

Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,326 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).
Leek + parsleytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together759 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Rice + leektop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together161 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).