Name: Oyster Bisque a LA Reine
Ingredients: 1 pint strained chicken broth; oyster liquor; ½ cup milk; ½ cup breadcrumbs; ½ cup finely minced white chicken meat; parsley to taste; salt to taste; pepper to taste; 1 beaten egg

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Oyster Bisque a LA Reine

Ingredients

Directions

Combine the oyster liquor with the strained chicken broth.
Stir in the milk and breadcrumbs.
Add the finely minced chicken meat.
Season with parsley, salt, and pepper.
Finally, mix in the beaten egg.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Chicken + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,449 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,389 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,103 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Chicken + oystertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together972 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, oyster, milk, meat, pepper, egg):

Thymefits about as well
Parsleythe original
Nutmegfits about as well
Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, oyster, milk, meat, pepper, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.