Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Crecy Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel and chop the carrots.
Make the soup
Cook the carrots in broth or stock until soft.
Blend the mixture until smooth.
In a separate pan, add the flour to a little broth to make a paste.
Stir the paste into the soup gradually, mixing well.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
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 + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,029 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Carrots
- Provide the main body, sweetness and flavour of the soup once blended.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup into a smooth, body-rich texture when stirred in as a paste.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour paste into the soup gradually. Flour clumps if added in one lump to hot liquid. Mixing it first into a smooth paste with a little broth and adding it slowly keeps the soup smooth and evenly thickened.
Swap the carrot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, pepper):
- Arrowrootfits better
- Okrafits better
- Spinachfits better
- Carrotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, pepper. 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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