Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Fontage Croustades
Ingredients
Directions
Boil meat in water seasoned with parsley, onion, bay leaf, and celery.
When cold, remove skin and bones, and cut meat into 1-inch square pieces.
Make sauce according to your recipe and add the meat, marinating for 1 hour in French Dressing.
Fill dishes with the mixture, cover with browned crumbs, and bake for 5 minutes.
To brown crumbs, sauté in 1 tablespoon of butter until brown.
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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Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,810 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, parsley, celery, butter):
- Carrotfits better
- Potatofits better
- Shallotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, parsley, celery, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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