Name: Beet, Cabbage & Mushroom Borscht
Ingredients: 8 to 10 large beets; 3 Tbs. olive oil; 2 large red onions, chopped; 6 large carrots, peeled and sliced; 2 heads cabbage, shredded; 4 cups sliced fresh mushrooms; 1 lemon, pricked with a fork in several places; 10 cups beef or vegetable stock or canned broth; Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste; Sugar, to taste; Fresh lemon juice, to taste; 1/2 cup chopped fresh dill

Why it works: Lemon and pepper 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 ↓

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.

Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mushroom + beeftop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,232 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, onion, carrot, cabbage, mushroom, beef, pepper):

Avocadofits better
Limefits better
Lemonthe original
Mangofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, onion, carrot, cabbage, mushroom, beef, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Beef	100g cooked	250
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Broccoli	1 cup chopped (156g)	55
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Red Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Beet	1/2 cup (85g)	35
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Mushrooms	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Dill	5 sprigs fresh (1g) / 1 tsp dried	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Beet, Cabbage & Mushroom Borscht