Name: Herb Broth
Ingredients: 1 handful of sorrel, washed and chopped; 12 sprigs of chervil, washed and chopped; ½ head of lettuce, washed and chopped; 1 ounce of butter; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; Lukewarm water; 3 egg yolks; Croutons for serving

Why it works: Sorrel and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 247 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Herb Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

In a stewpan, melt the butter over medium heat.
Add the chopped sorrel, chervil, and lettuce; season with salt and pepper.
Cook the mixture well, then cover with lukewarm water.
Boil for 3 minutes.

Finish and serve

Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg yolks.
Serve immediately over croutons.

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.

Sorrel + cherviltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together247 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Chervil + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together396 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Sorrel + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together317 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Chervil + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together867 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,037 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Sorrel: Adds a sharp, lemony acidity that brightens the broth.
Chervil: Contributes a delicate, fresh herbal aroma.
Lettuce: Adds body and a mild, vegetal sweetness as it softens.
Butter: Carries the herb flavours and adds richness to the broth.
Egg yolks: Thicken the broth gently and add richness when stirred in off the heat.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks off the heat. Egg yolks begin to scramble above roughly 70°C, so the broth should be removed from heat before they are stirred in. Stirring them into a boiling liquid can curdle the yolks and leave the broth grainy instead of smooth and lightly thickened.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sorrel, chervil, butter, pepper, egg):

Chivefits better
Shallotfits better
Leekfits about as well
Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sorrel, chervil, butter, pepper, egg. 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.