Name: New England Boiled Dinner
Ingredients: 8 pounds corned beef (cut from round); ½ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; 2 carrots, peeled and sliced 2 inches thick; 4 beets, peeled and sliced 2 inches thick; 1 yellow turnip, peeled and sliced 2 inches thick; 4 white turnips, peeled and sliced 2 inches thick; 1 large head celery, cut into 2-inch lengths; 6 small onions, cut into 2-inch lengths

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 ↓

New England Boiled Dinner

Ingredients

8 pounds corned beef (cut from round)
½ teaspoon coarse sea salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 carrots, peeled and sliced 2 inches thick
4 beets, peeled and sliced 2 inches thick
1 yellow turnip, peeled and sliced 2 inches thick
4 white turnips, peeled and sliced 2 inches thick
1 large head celery, cut into 2-inch lengths
6 small onions, cut into 2-inch lengths

Directions

Prepare the meat

Remove the bone from the corned beef and tie the meat closely.
Place the meat in a deep pot and cover it with water.
Add ½ teaspoon of coarse sea salt and ¼ teaspoon of black pepper, then boil quickly, removing all scum.
Once no more scum rises, add the prepared vegetables.

Cook and serve

Simmer slowly for two hours.
When done, place the meat in the center of a platter and arrange the vegetables around it.
Pour a little gravy over the meat and vegetables, and serve additional gravy in a boat with boiled potatoes.

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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,418 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,585 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Corned beef: Provides the main meat, whose slow simmering makes it tender and well seasoned.
Carrots: Add sweetness and color to the pot as they soften in the broth.
Beets: Add earthy sweetness and a deep color that bleeds into the broth.
Turnips: Add mild, slightly peppery body that becomes soft and tender in the simmering liquid.
Celery: Adds aromatic savory flavor to the broth as it cooks.
Onions: Add aromatic sweetness that mellows and deepens during slow simmering.

The step that matters

Removing the scum while boiling. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the liquid first heats. Skimming it before the vegetables go in keeps the broth clear and prevents off flavors and cloudiness.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, carrot, turnip, celery):

Parsnipfits better
Leekfits better
Spinachfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, carrot, turnip, celery. 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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New England Boiled Dinner