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 ↓
Fricassee of Chickens, with Mushrooms, Etc.
Ingredients
Directions
Draw and singe the chickens over a charcoal flame.
Cut the chickens into small joints: remove wings and legs, then make parallel cuts on the back.
Place the chicken on its side and cut the leg and fillet, then repeat on the other side.
Remove thigh bones, separate back and breast, and trim without waste.
Cut the back into two pieces and steep in tepid water for 10 minutes, squeezing to extract blood.
Strew the bottom of a stewpan with thinly sliced carrot, onion, and celery.
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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Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,668 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
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Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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 (chicken, carrot, onion, celery):
- Parsleyfits better
- Thymefits better
- Cuminfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, carrot, onion, celery. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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