Name: Spring Soup, Removed with Young Chickens and Cauliflowers
Ingredients: young chickens; cauliflowers; water; salt; pepper; herbs

Why it works: Cauliflower and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,113 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Spring Soup, Removed with Young Chickens and Cauliflowers

Ingredients

Directions

In a large pot, combine water, young chickens, and chopped cauliflowers.
Season with salt, pepper, and herbs to taste.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the chickens are cooked through.
Remove the chickens, shred the meat, and return it to the pot.
Serve hot.

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.

Cauliflower + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,113 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,958 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Chicken + cauliflowertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together112 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).