Name: Soup-herb Powder, or Vegetable Relish
Ingredients: 2 ounces dried parsley; 2 ounces winter savory; 2 ounces sweet marjoram; 2 ounces lemon-thyme; 1 ounce lemon peel, cut thin and dried; 1 ounce sweet basil; 1 drachm bay leaves (optional); 1 drachm celery seed (optional)

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 ↓

Soup-herb Powder, or Vegetable Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Dry the herbs in a warm Dutch oven until completely dried.
Pound the dried herbs in a mortar until fine.
Sift the powdered herbs through a double hair sieve.

Store

Store the powder in a tightly sealed bottle to retain fragrance and flavor.

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).
Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together688 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried parsley: Adds fresh, green herbal flavor as the base of the blend.
Winter savory: Contributes a peppery, thyme-like aroma that gives the blend depth.
Sweet marjoram: Provides a sweet, floral aroma that rounds out the herb mix.
Lemon-thyme: Adds citrusy, aromatic notes that brighten the blend.
Lemon peel: Adds concentrated citrus aroma and flavor once dried and powdered.
Sweet basil: Contributes sweet, clove-like aroma to the mixed herb flavor.

The step that matters

Drying the herbs completely. Any moisture left in the herbs can cause the powder to clump, lose flavor, or spoil in storage. Fully dried herbs grind into a fine powder and keep their aroma longer.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, winter savory, marjoram, lemon, thyme, basil):

Sagefits better
Tarragonfits better
Oreganofits better
Celerythe original

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

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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Soup-herb Powder, or Vegetable Relish