Name: Chartreuse of Partridges
Ingredients: 2 partridges; 2 carrots; 2 turnips; 1 head Savoy cabbage; 1 cup green peas; 1 cup kidney beans; small onions; butter; well-seasoned gravy

Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Chartreuse of Partridges

Ingredients

Directions

Butter the inside of a large oblong mold.
Boil carrots and turnips in broth until cooked, then drain.
Boil Savoy cabbage in water until cooked, then drain and squeeze out moisture.
Cut carrots and turnips into strips and arrange them at the bottom of the mold in a pattern.
Line the sides of the mold with sliced carrots and turnips.
Press a layer of cabbage tightly against the sides.
Stew quartered partridges in well-seasoned gravy until tender.
Place the stewed partridges in the center of the mold.
Surround the partridges with peas, kidney beans, and drained boiled lettuces.
Fill any gaps with tightly packed cabbage.

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.

Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together897 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,585 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + cabbagetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,505 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the kidney beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, cabbage, peas, onion, butter):

Beansfits better
Lentilsfits better
Chestnutfits better
Kidney beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, cabbage, peas, onion, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.