Name: Soup a LA Toutue
Ingredients: 4 sets of giblets; 2 quarts best stock; ¼ pound butter; chopped shallots; knotted marjoram; sweet marjoram; a little basil

Why it works: Marjoram and basil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 688 recipes mention both. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the giblets

Scald the giblets, removing the gills from the pinions, feet, and heads.
Cut the necks into 1‑inch pieces and the gizzard into 8 pieces.
Blanch the giblets by boiling them briefly, then transfer to cold water and wash thoroughly.

Make the soup

Place the giblets in a small soup pot with 2 quarts of stock.
Bring to a gentle boil and cook until tender.
In a separate pan, melt ¼ pound of butter and sauté chopped shallots, knotted marjoram, sweet marjoram, and a little basil.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together688 recipes

Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).
Shallot + marjoramtop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together278 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Shallot + basiltop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together472 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter + shallottop 10% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together4,379 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Butter + marjoramtop 15% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,627 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Giblets: Provide the main meat and flavor of the soup as they simmer until tender.
Stock: Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the giblets and herbs.
Butter: Carries the shallots and herbs, adding richness and helping their aromas develop.
Chopped shallots: Add a mild, sweet aromatic base when softened gently in butter.

Flavor stand-ins for the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, marjoram, basil):

Carrotbetter flavor fit
Tomatobetter flavor fit
Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, marjoram, basil. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.