Name: Chicken Gumbo Fil&
Ingredients: curry powder; veal broth; pieces of chicken; apple; rice

Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Chicken Gumbo Fil&

Ingredients

Directions

Add curry powder, veal broth, and pieces of chicken to a pot.
Simmer gently for 1 hour.
Half an hour before serving, strain and skim the soup.
Return the soup to the fire with the chicken, apple, and rice.
Heat until hot and serve.

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.

Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,769 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Veal + chickentop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,243 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).
Apple + ricetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,311 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Veal + ricetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,119 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Chicken + appletop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together856 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).