Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Boiled Shad Au Court Bouillon
Ingredients
Directions
In a pot, fry the chopped onion, carrot, and celery in beef dripping or butter.
Pour in the boiling water and add vinegar or white wine.
Season with mace, peppercorns, cloves, bay leaf, and salt.
Boil for 30 minutes, then strain the stock.
Cook the fish in the hot liquid.
Serve with butter or egg sauce, garnished with slices of hard-boiled eggs.
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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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,668 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
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Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, carrot, celery, beef, vinegar, clove):
- Parsleyfits better
- Thymefits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, celery, beef, vinegar, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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