Why it works: Parsley and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,768 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓
Cod Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, combine the parsley, onion, cloves, mushrooms, and butter.
Simmer the mixture over low heat.
Add the flour and enough milk or cream to create a sauce.
Cook until the sauce thickens.
Finish and serve
Stir in the scalded chopped parsley before serving.
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 + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,768 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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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 + mushroomtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,626 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Melts to carry flavour and enriches the sauce with fat.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid as its starch swells with heat, giving the sauce body.
- Milk or cream
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce and adds richness.
- Mushrooms
- Release moisture and savoury flavour as they cook in the butter.
The step that matters
Cook until the sauce thickens. Flour needs sustained heat to swell its starch and thicken the liquid fully. Stopping too early leaves a thin sauce with a raw floury taste, while overheating or boiling hard can cause the milk to scorch or separate.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, onion, mushroom, butter, flour, milk):
- Thymefits better
- Garlicfits better
- Capersfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, onion, mushroom, butter, flour, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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.
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