Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Force-Meat for Turtle
Ingredients
Directions
Pound veal in a mortar until fine.
Boil the calf's udder until done, then clean and slice it.
Pound the udder until it can pass through a sieve.
Soak bread crumbs in milk, then drain and place in a stewpan with a little white broth.
In another stewpan, melt butter and fry ham, parsley, clove, shallots, mace, and mushrooms gently.
Moisten the fried mixture with a spoonful of broth, let it boil gently, then strain the gravy over the soaked bread crumbs.
Place the panada on the fire and reduce it while stirring carefully.
When dry, add a small piece of butter and the yolks of two eggs, then let it cool on a plate.
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 + shallottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,737 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,677 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,768 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, bread, milk, butter, ham, parsley, shallot):
- Capersfits better
- Thymefits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, bread, milk, butter, ham, parsley, shallot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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