Name: Pipérade Recipe
Cook time: 1 h 25 min
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients: 6 medium tomatoes; 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons olive oil; 4 ounces thinly sliced Bayonne ham, cut into 1/2-inch squares; 2 medium yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced; 2 medium garlic cloves, minced; 2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, coarsely chopped; 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, coarsely chopped; 1 medium dried bay leaf; 2 medium red, yellow, or orange bell peppers, cleaned and sliced lengthwise into 1/4-inch strips; 2 medium green bell peppers, cleaned and sliced lengthwise into 1/4-inch strips; Kosher salt; 2 teaspoons piment d’Espelette

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).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,108 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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 (tomato, olive, ham, onion, garlic, parsley, thyme):

Basilfits better
Marjoramfits better
Oreganofits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, olive, ham, onion, garlic, parsley, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pork	100g cooked	242
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Orange Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Green Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Pipérade Recipe