Name: Duckling, Stuffed
Ingredients: 1 large Rouen duckling; 1 chicken liver; ½ pint brown sauce; 3 oz breadcrumbs; 1 oz butter; 2 egg yolks; 1 shallot, finely chopped; 2 teaspoons finely chopped parsley; 1 teaspoon finely chopped thyme; salt and pepper to taste; a pinch of nutmeg

Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,737 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,476 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Chicken + thymetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,173 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Sauce + shallottop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,303 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, liver, sauce, butter, egg, shallot, parsley):

Capersfits better
Tarragonfits about as well
Thymethe original
Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, liver, sauce, butter, egg, shallot, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Duckling, Stuffed