Name: Bacon and Fowl Broth
Ingredients: 8 lbs bacon; 2 whole fowls; 3½ pints broth from bacon and fowls; 3 onions; ½ oz cloves; ½ oz peppercorns; 1 teaspoon allspice

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Bacon and Fowl Broth

Ingredients

Directions

In a large pot, combine the bacon and fowls with enough water to cover.
Simmer for 2 hours to create a rich broth.
Add the onions, cloves, peppercorns, and allspice.
Continue to simmer for an additional 30 minutes.
Strain the broth and serve.

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.

Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,901 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Onion + allspicetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,270 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Bacon: Releases fat and smoky, salty flavour into the broth as it simmers.
Whole fowls: Provide meat and collagen that give the broth body and savoury depth.
Onions: Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the simmering liquid.
Peppercorns: Contribute gentle, warm pungency that rounds out the broth's aroma.