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 ↓
Potato Cutlets
Ingredients
Directions
Mix yolks of eggs with shallot, herbs, parsley, and nutmeg.
Add well-beaten eggs and form the mixture into small balls, no bigger than a walnut.
Dip each ball in beaten egg, then coat with bread crumbs.
Fry the balls in oil until golden brown and serve.
For cutlets, flatten the mixture into oval shapes, then egg, bread crumb, and fry them.
Garnish with a small piece of parsley stalk to represent a bone.
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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Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,737 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,476 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,062 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,907 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, shallot, thyme, parsley, bread):
- Capersfits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, shallot, thyme, parsley, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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