Why it works: Parsley and chive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,150 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Marrow Aux Fine Herbs
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the marrow
Break up and extract the marrow from the bones.
Cut the marrow into square pieces the size of a walnut.
Soak the pieces in tepid water for 2-3 hours to extract the blood.
Place the marrow in a frying basket and immerse it in a saucepan of cold water.
Heat the saucepan until it boils, then remove and drain the marrow.
Serve
Place two pieces of marrow on each square of fried toast.
Break the marrow with a fork, sprinkle with parsley, chives, and coarse sea salt, and serve very hot.
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.
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Parsley + chivetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,150 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Marrow bones
- Provide the rich, fatty marrow that forms the main body of the topping.
- Fried toast
- Gives a crisp, absorbent base that holds the soft marrow.
- Chopped parsley
- Adds fresh, green aroma that balances the richness of the marrow.
- Chopped chives or green onion
- Adds a mild, sharp onion aroma that lifts the fatty flavour.
The step that matters
Heating the marrow until it boils, then draining it. Marrow is mostly fat that melts easily. Boiling briefly firms it and sets it so it holds its shape, while overheating will melt it away before it reaches the toast.
“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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