Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the broth
Saw the bones of the beef joint and place it in a soup kettle with cold water.
Bring to a boil and skim off any foam.
Cook steadily for 4 to 5 hours, adding more water if necessary.
Add the vegetables and finish
Two hours before serving, add the pearl barley.
One hour before serving, add the grated turnip, carrots, celery leaves, and season with salt and pepper.
Add the cut potatoes and cook until tender.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Barley + turniptop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together629 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,418 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,377 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef joint
- Its bones and meat flavour the broth during the long, steady simmer.
- Pearl barley
- Swells as it cooks, adding body and thickening the soup.
- Potatoes
- Soften into tender pieces that add starch and body to the soup.
- Carrots
- Add sweetness and colour as they cook into the broth.
- Turnip
- Adds a mild, slightly peppery flavour and soft texture to the soup.
The step that matters
Keep the simmer steady and skim the foam. A gentle, steady simmer after the initial boil keeps the broth clear and the meat tender. Skimming the foam removes impurities that would otherwise cloud the soup and taint its flavour.
Swap the tomato
The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, barley, turnip, carrot, celery, pepper, potato):
- Leekfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, barley, turnip, carrot, celery, pepper, potato. 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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