Name: Moist Stuffing
Ingredients: 2 cups stale bread crumbs; 1 teaspoon salt; 4 tablespoons melted butter; 2 tablespoons minced parsley; 2 egg yolks; 1 tablespoon minced onion; ¾ cup milk; 1 teaspoon mixed powdered herbs; ¾ teaspoon black pepper

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Moist Stuffing

Ingredients

Directions

Rub the stale bread crumbs fine and place them in a bowl.
Mix in the salt, mixed herbs, and black pepper.
Pour the melted butter over the dry ingredients and stir well.
Beat the egg yolks, add the milk, and combine with the mixture.
Stir until all ingredients are well combined.

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.

Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,466 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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 (bread, butter, parsley, egg, milk, pepper):

Potatofits better
Capsicumfits better
Asparagusfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, parsley, egg, milk, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.