Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Pickled Mussels
Ingredients
Directions
Remove cooked mussels from their shells and discard the beards.
Place mussels in jars and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Strain the mussel liquor and mix it with an equal amount of vinegar.
Pour the mixture over the mussels in the jars and seal tightly.
Let the jars sit for a day before using.
To serve hot, heat some of the liquor in a saucepan with minced parsley, salt, and pepper.
Thicken with butter rolled in flour, add mussels, and warm through.
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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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together28,563 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, vinegar, butter, flour):
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Parsleythe original
- Turmericfits less well
- Thymefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, vinegar, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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