Name: French Forcemeat Called Quenelles
Ingredients: 6 oz white veal; 2 oz butter; 1 teaspoon minced parsley; 2 teaspoons thyme; 2 teaspoons coarse sea salt; 2 teaspoons lemon peel; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; ¼ teaspoon cayenne; ¼ teaspoon mace; 2 oz bread crumbs; ½ oz butter; 2 oz rasped bacon; 2 to 3 yolks of eggs

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).
Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,973 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Thyme + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,907 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, parsley, thyme, lemon, nutmeg, bread):

Marjoramfits better
Sagefits better
Winter savoryfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, parsley, thyme, lemon, nutmeg, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

French Forcemeat Called Quenelles