Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓
Crawfish, Lobsters, Crabs
Ingredients
Directions
Place crawfish, lobsters, or crabs in a pot.
Add water, coarse sea salt, black pepper, vinegar, parsley, chives, thyme, and bay leaf.
Bring to a boil and cook for 30 minutes.
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 + thymetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,057 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,150 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,585 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Chive + thymetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together580 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
Swap the chive
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar, parsley, thyme):
- Shallotfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Chivethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, parsley, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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