Name: Braised Chicken with Carrots
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken, dressed and trussed; 1 tablespoon butter; 1 cup tomatoes; 4 large carrots, cut into strips; Roux (thickening agent)

Why it works: Tomato and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,606 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Braised Chicken with Carrots

Ingredients

Directions

Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat.
Add the chicken and brown it on all sides.
Cook the chicken as directed for Plain Braise.
Add the tomatoes and fried carrot strips.
Serve the chicken with the carrots around it and strain the sauce to serve in a separate dish.

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.

Tomato + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,606 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,031 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Chicken + carrottop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,338 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Butter + tomatotop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,918 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).