Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Bouillon
Ingredients
Directions
Make the broth
Combine 4 pints of water and 2 lbs of meat with bone in a large pot.
Add 6 oz of chopped carrots, 6 oz of chopped turnips, and 6 oz of other vegetables.
Stir in 1 oz of salt and 1 oz of roasted onions.
Simmer and strain
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for several hours.
Strain the broth if desired, but keep the vegetables for added nutrition.
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 + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,364 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Meat + carrottop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,905 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Meat (with bone)
- Bones and connective tissue release gelatin and savory flavor, giving the broth body over long simmering.
- Carrots
- Add natural sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth.
- Turnips
- Contribute mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the broth.
- Roasted onions
- Add roasted, browned aroma and deeper flavor to the broth.
The step that matters
Reduce to a gentle simmer after boiling. A rolling boil agitates fat and proteins into the liquid, making broth cloudy and greasy. Holding a gentle simmer for hours extracts flavor slowly while keeping the broth clear.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, carrot, turnip):
- Parsnipfits better
- Leekfits better
- Beetrootfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, carrot, turnip. 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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