Name: Turkey or Chicken Dressing
Ingredients: ½ pound sausage; ½ teaspoon sage; ½ teaspoon thyme; ½ teaspoon parsley; 1 onion, chopped; ¼ teaspoon paprika; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; 1 teaspoon salt; ¼ pound stale bread, crumbled; ⅓ box mushrooms, chopped; ⅓ small box truffles, chopped; ¼ pound suet, chopped; 2 raw eggs, beaten; ½ pound French chestnuts, broiled and chopped

Why it works: Sage and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

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.

Sage + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,485 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Sage + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,445 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,388 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 (sage, thyme, parsley, pepper, bread, mushroom, truffle):

Shallotfits better
Carrotfits better
Spinachfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sage, thyme, parsley, pepper, bread, mushroom, truffle. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Turkey or Chicken Dressing