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Carrot Soup

A veal-based soup with carrots, celery, rice, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Carrot Soup

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 ↓

Carrot Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a soup kettle, combine the knuckle of veal and cold water.

  2. Add the sliced carrots and celery, then bring to a boil.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer for 2.5 hours.

  4. Stir in the rice and continue to boil for an additional hour.

  5. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt to taste, then serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Carrot + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,477 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Celery + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 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

Carrots
Provide the main flavor, natural sweetness and color of the soup.
Knuckle of veal
Releases gelatin and savory flavor into the water during long simmering, adding body to the broth.
Rice
Thickens the soup as its starch softens and releases into the liquid.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savory background flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmering the veal and vegetables for 2.5 hours. A long, gentle simmer draws gelatin and flavor from the veal into the water. Boiling hard instead can cloud the broth and make the flavors harsher, so keep the heat low once it has come to a boil.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, rice, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Celerythe original
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, rice, 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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