Why it works: Sorrel and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 247 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the carrots, turnips, onions, celery, leeks, lettuces, sorrel, and chervil into thin fillets.
Cut the green peas and asparagus points into small pieces.
Wash and drain the vegetables on a sieve.
Add enough vegetable stock to cover the vegetables and simmer for 1 hour until tender.
Season to taste and serve.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Sorrel + cherviltop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together247 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together10,172 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Lettuce + sorreltop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together317 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Lettuce + cherviltop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together396 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + leektop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,046 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, celery, leek, lettuce, sorrel, chervil):
- Endivebetter flavor fit
- Beetrootbetter flavor fit
- Parsnipbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, celery, leek, lettuce, sorrel, chervil. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
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IllustrationThe Sunday pairing: one pairing, the chemistry behind it, and how to cook it. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
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