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 ↓
Soups
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the stock
Cut the meat into small pieces and break the bones.
Place the meat and bones in a pot with cold water, without salt.
Heat slowly until it comes to a boil, then skim the surface.
Cover the pot and let it simmer until the meat is thoroughly cooked and the juices are extracted.
Finish and serve
The next day, remove the fat that hardens on top of the soup.
Reheat the soup and add boiled vegetables of your choice.
Season with salt and a little cayenne pepper.
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 pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
-
Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together897 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,418 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Turnip + asparagustop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together328 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
- Beef, veal, or mutton joints
- Supply the meat and juices that flavour the broth as they simmer.
- Bones
- Release gelatin and savoury flavour into the water during long simmering.
- Vegetables
- Add body, sweetness, and texture to the finished soup when boiled and added.
The step that matters
Skimming and chilling the stock. Skimming foam as it comes to a boil keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting. Letting it cool overnight lets the fat set on top, so it can be removed cleanly.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, onion, celery, cabbage, asparagus):
- Beansfits better
- Lentilsfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, onion, celery, cabbage, asparagus. 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.
More beef soup recipes
You might also like
Green Peas229 recipes
Roast Beef211 recipes
Asparagus Soup179 recipes
Beef Loaf175 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.