Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Carrot Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the soup
Wash, scrape, and slice the carrots.
Boil the carrots in water or stock until tender, about 1 hour for young carrots.
Strain and finish
Place a clean sieve over a large bowl and pour the contents of the saucepan into the sieve.
Rub the carrots through the sieve with the back of a wooden spoon, using some of the soup to help.
Discard any hard, stringy parts that remain.
Return the soup to the saucepan and bring to a boil.
If the soup is not as thick as cream, thicken it with flour or cornstarch.
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 + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 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
- Carrots
- Form the main body and sweet, earthy flavor of the soup once cooked and puréed.
- Flour or cornstarch (in the method)
- Thickens the soup by swelling in hot liquid, adding body if it is too thin.
The step that matters
Rubbing the carrots through the sieve. Cooked carrots must be pressed fully to a smooth purée; leftover fibres and lumps make the soup grainy. Adding some soup helps the pulp pass through the mesh.
“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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