Name: Veal Broth
Ingredients: 1 pound knuckle of veal; 2 ounces rice; 1 sprig parsley; salt to taste

Why it works: Rice and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,762 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Veal Broth

Ingredients

1 pound knuckle of veal
2 ounces rice
1 sprig parsley
salt to taste

Directions

Prepare

Cut the veal into small pieces.

Make the broth

Place the veal in a stewpan with 3 pints of cold water, rice, and a little salt.
Boil gently for 1.5 hours.
Chop the parsley finely and add it to the broth 3 minutes before removing from heat.

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.

Rice + parsleytop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,762 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Veal + parsleytop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,766 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Veal + ricetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,119 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of veal: Releases gelatin and flavour into the water as it simmers, giving the broth body.
Rice: Thickens the broth slightly as its starch softens during the gentle simmer.