Name: Turtle Soup
Ingredients: 1 quart broth; 91 herbs (winter savory, marjoram, lemon-thyme); 1 handful parsley; ½ bunch green onions; 1 handful green shallots; trimmings of mushrooms; crystallized soluble cayenne pepper; pieces of turtle; small quenelles (made with hen fillets and 6 hard-boiled egg yolks)

Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Turtle Soup

Ingredients

1 quart broth
91 herbs (winter savory, marjoram, lemon-thyme)
1 handful parsley
½ bunch green onions
1 handful green shallots
trimmings of mushrooms
crystallized soluble cayenne pepper
pieces of turtle
small quenelles (made with hen fillets and 6 hard-boiled egg yolks)

Directions

Combine winter savory, marjoram, lemon-thyme, parsley, green onions, green shallots, and mushrooms in a pot.
Moisten with 1 quart of broth and stew for 1 hour.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve to create a puree.
Add the puree to the soup and stir in a little cayenne pepper.
Boil the turtle pieces and fins in the soup for 15 minutes, skimming off any foam that rises.
Check seasoning and adjust as needed.
Divide the soup into four-quart basins, adding equal amounts of fat and quenelles to each.
Mould quenelles into small balls and poach them.
Warm the soup before serving and add a small glass of sherry.

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.

Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,225 recipes

Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).
Winter savory + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together780 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Winter savory + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together455 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,979 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (winter savory, marjoram, lemon, thyme, parsley, shallot, mushroom):

Leekfits better
Arrowrootfits better
Chivefits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against winter savory, marjoram, lemon, thyme, parsley, shallot, mushroom. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.