Name: Belorussian Borsch
Ingredients: 300 g beef.; 500 g pork with bones.; 100 g sausages.; 500 g beet.; 350 g potatoes.; 100 g carrot.; 30 g parsley.; 100 g onion.; 50 g tomato paste.; 30 g fat.; 20 g flour.; 20 g sugar.; 20 g 6% vinegar.; sour cream.; salt.

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. 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.

Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,690 recipes

Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,855 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef: Provides meat flavour and body to the broth as it cooks.
Beet: Gives the soup its deep red colour and an earthy sweetness.
Potatoes: Add starch and body, making the soup more substantial.
Tomato paste: Adds concentrated acidity and savoury depth, and deepens the colour.
Flour: Thickens the soup slightly when fried with the vegetables.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Add the vinegar and sugar last. Acid and sugar change the flavour balance and the colour of beet quickly. Adding them at the end, after the beet has cooked, lets you taste and adjust, and avoids dulling the colour or overpowering the soup.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, potato, carrot, parsley, onion, flour):

Turnipfits better
Chivefits better
Leekfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, potato, carrot, parsley, onion, flour. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Sausage	100g cooked	301
Beef	100g cooked	250
Pork	100g cooked	242
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Beet	1/2 cup (85g)	35
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Belorussian Borsch