Name: Consomme Florentine
Ingredients: 24 small quenelles of chicken forcemeat; finely chopped tongue (for half of the quenelles); reduced spinach puree (for the other half of the quenelles); 2 tablespoons cooked green peas; 1 quart clear boiling consomme; a pinch of chervil pluches

Why it works: Spinach and chervil share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Consomme Florentine

Ingredients

24 small quenelles of chicken forcemeat
finely chopped tongue (for half of the quenelles)
reduced spinach puree (for the other half of the quenelles)
2 tablespoons cooked green peas
1 quart clear boiling consomme
a pinch of chervil pluches

Directions

Prepare the garnish

Make 24 small quenelles of chicken forcemeat.
Add finely chopped tongue to half of the quenelles and reduced spinach puree to the other half.
Poach the quenelles.

Assemble and serve

Place the quenelles in a soup tureen with 2 tablespoons of cooked green peas.
Pour 1 quart of clear boiling consommé over the garnish.
Add a pinch of chervil pluches.

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.

Spinach + cherviltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together78 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Spinach + peastop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together550 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Peas + cherviltop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together170 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Chicken + spinachtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,146 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Chicken + peastop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,528 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken forcemeat: Forms the body of the quenelles, giving them a light, delicate, tender texture when poached.
Clear consommé: Serves as the hot clear broth that surrounds and warms the garnish.