Name: Sheep's-head Soup
Ingredients: 1 sheep's head, cleaned; water; 1 onion, chopped; sweet herbs (such as parsley, thyme, or bay leaves); vegetables (optional, such as carrots or celery)

Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Sheep's-head Soup

Ingredients

1 sheep's head, cleaned
water
1 onion, chopped
sweet herbs (such as parsley, thyme, or bay leaves)
vegetables (optional, such as carrots or celery)

Directions

Place the cleaned sheep's head in a stewpan and add a little water.
Heat the head through, then fill the pot with more water.
Once tender, remove the head, take the meat off the bones, and return the bones to the broth.
Add chopped onion and sweet herbs to the broth.
Optionally, place the head and trotters in an earthen jug with 1 gallon of water, cover, and bake.
When tender, cut the meat into small pieces and add to the soup, or serve the head and trotters separately.

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.

Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).