Why it works: Carrot and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓
Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the vegetables
Boil the vegetables in the water for 2 hours, stirring often.
Add more water if it boils away too quickly.
Thicken and serve
Mix the butter, flour, mustard, salt, and pepper with a teacupful of cold water in a basin.
Stir the mixture into the soup and boil for 10 minutes.
Place the yolks of the eggs in a tureen, pour the soup over them, stir well, and serve.
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 + parsniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,097 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,107 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Parsnip + mustardtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together89 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Parsnip + potatotop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together353 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Thickens the soup as it cooks, giving it body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the broth.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and thicken the soup when stirred in at the end.
- Carrot
- Breaks down during long boiling, adding sweetness and body to the soup.
- Parsnip
- Softens during long boiling, adding sweetness and body to the soup.
- Potato
- Breaks down during long boiling, adding starch that thickens the soup.
The step that matters
Pouring the soup over the egg yolks. If the soup is too hot or added too quickly while not stirred, the yolks can scramble instead of thickening it smoothly. Stirring well as the soup is poured over them helps the yolks warm gradually and blend in evenly.
Swap the mustard
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, parsnip, potato, butter, flour, pepper, egg):
- Leekfits better
- Turnipfits better
- Beetrootfits better
- Mustardthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, parsnip, potato, butter, flour, pepper, egg. 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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