Name: Condensed Mock Turtle Soup
Ingredients: 45 gallons of water; double quantity of Worcestershire Sauce; double quantity of pepper; double quantity of lemons; 1 pound Extract of Beef

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Condensed Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

45 gallons of water
double quantity of Worcestershire Sauce
double quantity of pepper
double quantity of lemons
1 pound Extract of Beef

Directions

In a large pot, combine 45 gallons of water.
Add double the amount of Worcestershire Sauce, pepper, and lemons to taste.
Stir in 1 pound of beef extract.
Simmer the mixture until well combined and heated through.

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.

Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + beeftop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Lemon + beeftop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,278 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Sauce + beeftop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,650 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,303 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sauce and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef extract: Provides the concentrated beefy flavor that gives the soup its main savory character.
Worcestershire sauce: Adds savory depth and tang that rounds out the broth.
Lemons: Add acidity that brightens the rich, savory broth.