Why it works: Celery and carrot 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 ↓
Winter Vegetable Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Assemble
In a baking dish, layer the cold boiled potatoes, onions, celery, and carrot.
Add the stewed tomatoes and peas on top.
Pour stock over the vegetables, thickened to a gravy with butter and flour.
Cover with a plain pie crust.
Bake
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until golden.
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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Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,377 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,107 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,798 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
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Form the bulk of the filling and hold their shape while baking.
- Stewed tomatoes
- Add moisture and a tangy, acidic note to the filling.
- Butter and flour
- Thicken the stock into a gravy that binds the vegetables together.
- Plain pie crust
- Encloses the filling and browns to a golden top.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, celery, carrot, tomato, butter, flour):
- Beansfits better
- Chickpeafits better
- Lentilsfits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, celery, carrot, tomato, butter, flour. 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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