Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓
Ox Heart
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the gravy
Cut off the ears of the ox heart and wash them.
In a saucepan, combine the ears, one onion stuck with cloves, sliced onions, sliced carrot, sweet herbs, pepper, and salt.
Stew these ingredients by the fire for gravy.
Stuff and roast
Wash and wipe the heart clean, then stuff it with forcemeat and season with pepper and salt.
Skewer the holes to prevent stuffing from coming out.
Roast gently for 1.5 hours or bake it.
Serve
Strain the gravy over the heart and serve.
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 + thymetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,057 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,108 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,563 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ox heart
- Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender with gentle, slow cooking.
- Forcemeat
- Fills the cavity, adding moisture and flavour as it cooks inside the heart.
- Onions
- Build sweetness and body in the gravy as they stew down.
- Carrot
- Adds subtle sweetness and depth to the gravy as it simmers.
The step that matters
Roast gently. Heart is dense, muscular meat that turns tough if cooked hard and fast. Low, slow heat lets the connective tissue soften, keeping the meat tender and juicy.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, carrot, pepper, bread, parsley, thyme):
- Parsnipfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Turnipfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against clove, carrot, pepper, bread, parsley, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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