Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Bisque of Rabbits
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the rabbits into pieces and brown them in butter.
Add chopped onions, carrots, and celery; sauté until soft.
Stir in tomato paste and cook for a few minutes.
Pour in stock and simmer until the rabbits are tender.
Remove the rabbits, blend the soup until smooth, and return the meat to the pot.
Stir in cream, season with salt and pepper, and serve hot.
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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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,377 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,606 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, butter, onion, carrot, celery, cream, pepper):
- Potatofits better
- Leekfits better
- Turnipfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, butter, onion, carrot, celery, cream, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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