Why it works: Lentils and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 322 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Parsnip Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Cook lentils for 4 hours until soft.
Strain the soup through a wire sieve, removing the parsley.
Rub the remaining mixture through the sieve into a basin.
Keep a portion of the liquid hot to moisten the pulp as needed.
Boil the soup again before serving, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
Add a few drops of sugar browning for color.
Optionally, stir in a cup of boiling milk before serving.
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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Lentils + parsleytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together322 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lentils + milktop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together140 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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Parsley + milktop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,011 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Lentils + sugartop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together119 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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 (lentils, sugar, milk):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Turmericfits better
- Cuminfits better
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, sugar, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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