Why it works: Turnip and rice work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Turnip Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the broth
Combine the mutton and cold water in a large pot.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Skim off any foam that rises to the surface.
Reduce the heat and let the soup simmer.
Simmer for 3 hours until the meat is tender.
Strain the broth through a colander.
Let the strained broth cool.
Skim off the fat from the cooled broth.
Finish the soup
Add the turnips and rice to the broth.
Cook gently until the turnips are soft.
Season with coarse sea salt to taste before serving.
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.
-
Turnip + ricetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together824 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Mutton + ricetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,019 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Mutton + turniptop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,558 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton
- Gives the broth its meaty flavour and body as it simmers for hours.
- Turnips
- Soften during cooking and add mild sweetness and body to the soup.
- Rice
- Thickens the broth slightly as its starch releases during gentle cooking.
The step that matters
Skim off the foam before simmering. Foam that rises during boiling contains impurities and proteins that would cloud the broth and taint its flavour if left in.
Swap the turnip
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, rice):
- Asparagusfits better
- Leekfits better
- Tomatofits better
- Turnipthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, rice. 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.
More turnip soup recipes
You might also like
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Rice Fritters84 recipes
Haricot Mutton59 recipes
Mutton Soup56 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.