Name: Sweet-herb Dressing for Veal
Ingredients: 2 cups bread crumbs; ½ cup chopped ham; ½ teaspoon powdered thyme; ½ teaspoon summer savory; ½ teaspoon grated lemon rind; 2 teaspoons prepared mustard; 1 tablespoon chopped parsley; squeeze of lemon juice; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Thyme and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 214 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. 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.

Thyme + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together214 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,057 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Lemon + parsleytop 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).
Summer savory + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together241 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, ham, thyme, summer savory, lemon, parsley, pepper):

Shallotfits better
Carrotfits better
Okrafits about as well
Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, ham, thyme, summer savory, lemon, parsley, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Sweet-herb Dressing for Veal