Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,053 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
To Make Good Brown Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the soup
Chop the shanks into three pieces each and place them in a large pot.
Add the carrots, turnips, onions, parsley, salt, pepper, and water.
Boil for two days, adding water as needed to prevent boiling down.
Strain and serve
Strain the soup and let it cool, then remove the fat.
The soup will become a thick, rich brown jelly.
Serve with diced toast in a tureen, pouring the soup over it.
For variation, add 1 pint of tomatoes or macaroni to the soup.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together8,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,842 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together7,585 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
- Shanks of meat
- Gives the long simmer its body and rich, savoury flavour.
- Onions
- Add sweetness and depth of flavour as they cook down in the broth.
- Carrots
- Add natural sweetness and body to the broth during the long simmer.
- Turnips
- Contribute earthy sweetness and body to the long-simmered broth.
The step that matters
Boil for two days, adding water as needed. Long simmering breaks down collagen from the shanks, giving the broth body and a jelly-like set. Water must be replaced as it evaporates, or the soup over-reduces, concentrates too far, and can scorch on the bottom of the pot.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, carrot, turnip, parsley, pepper):
- Parsnipbetter flavor fit
- Leekbetter flavor fit
- Shallotbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, carrot, turnip, parsley, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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