Why it works: Thyme and parsley 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 ↓
Cream of Rice Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Peel and finely slice the onion.
In a saucepan, combine the stock, onion, bay leaf, thyme, parsley, pepper, and salt.
Simmer for one hour, then strain through a fine sieve.
Rinse the saucepan and return the strained stock to it.
Bring the stock to a boil again.
Mix the creme-de-riz with a little milk to form a smooth paste.
Stir the paste into the boiling stock and cook for ten 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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Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,057 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,585 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,171 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg, thyme, parsley, pepper):
- Shallotfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, thyme, parsley, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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