Name: Aspic Jelly
Ingredients: 2 quarts jellied veal stock; 2 ounces gelatine; ½ pint sherry; ½ pint vinegar (preferably French wine vinegar); the shells and whites of 2 eggs; 1 bouquet garni (parsley, thyme, bay leaf); 2 strips of celery

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 ↓

Aspic Jelly

Ingredients

2 quarts jellied veal stock
2 ounces gelatine
½ pint sherry
½ pint vinegar (preferably French wine vinegar)
the shells and whites of 2 eggs
1 bouquet garni (parsley, thyme, bay leaf)
2 strips of celery

Directions

Let the stock cool completely and remove all fat.
In a stewpan, combine the stock, gelatine, herbs, celery cut into large pieces, and the slightly beaten egg shells and whites.
Whisk the mixture until well combined.

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.

Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Thyme + celerytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,193 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Wine + thymetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,349 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Sherry + thymetop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together702 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 celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, sherry, vinegar, wine, egg, parsley, thyme):

Tarragonfits better
Marjoramfits better
Sagefits better
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, sherry, vinegar, wine, egg, parsley, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.