Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Fish Salads
Ingredients
Directions
Wash the oysters, scallops, and clams thoroughly.
Drain and marinate them for one hour.
Boil the shellfish in their own liquor until heated to boiling point, then drain and cut in halves.
For boiling fish, use salted hot water (1 ounce of salt per quart) with lemon juice or vinegar.
Add onion, carrot, parsley, celery, and aromatic herbs or spices while boiling.
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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Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,037 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,810 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Lemon + celerytop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,467 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 (oyster, scallop, clam, lemon, carrot, parsley, celery):
- Shallotfits better
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, scallop, clam, lemon, carrot, parsley, celery. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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