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 ↓
Mushrooms Aux Fines Herbes
Ingredients
Directions
Wash and peel the mushrooms, then slice them.
Dip the slices in the beaten egg.
Mix parsley, thyme, summer savory, and onion juice; coat the mushrooms with this mixture.
Fry the mushrooms in hot butter, a few at a time.
Serve the fried mushrooms on buttered toast.
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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Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,057 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Parsley + summer savorytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together241 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Mushroom + thymetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,557 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Thyme + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,171 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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 (mushroom, egg, parsley, thyme, summer savory, butter):
- Shallotfits better
- Chivefits better
- Carrotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, egg, parsley, thyme, summer savory, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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