Why it works: Carrot and parsley 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 ↓
Imitation Hare Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Flour the diced beef and fry in butter until well browned.
Brown the remaining flour in the same pan.
Brown the onion with the cloves in a hot oven or over the fire.
Combine all ingredients in a pot and simmer gently for 2 hours.
Strain the soup, return the meat and soup to the pot, and add meatballs.
Simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,842 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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 (beef, flour, butter, onion, carrot, turnip, parsley):
- Thymefits better
- Capersfits better
- Celeryfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, butter, onion, carrot, turnip, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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