Name: Marinade Eor Game
Ingredients: 1 bottle white wine; 1 pint vinegar; 1 quart water; 1 handful peppercorns; 4 bay leaves; 2 lumps sugar; 1-2 slices carrot; 1 onion; 1 root parsley

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Marinade Eor Game

Ingredients

Directions

In a saucepan, combine the white wine, vinegar, water, peppercorns, bay leaves, sugar, carrot, onion, and parsley.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Pour the marinade into an earthen vessel.
Marinate the game for at least two days, turning it at least twice a day.

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.

Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,776 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
White wine + oniontop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,535 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, vinegar, sugar, carrot, parsley):

Shallotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Parsnipfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, vinegar, sugar, carrot, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.