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 ↓
Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Combine cabbage, onion, carrot, potato, strained tomatoes, and celery in a large pot.
Add 4 quarts of water.
Season with salt and pepper.
Cook slowly for 3 to 4 hours.
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 + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,377 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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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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Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 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
- Potato
- Starch that softens during slow cooking and thickens the broth slightly.
- Strained tomatoes
- Provides acidity and body, forming the base of the broth.
- Cabbage
- Releases mild sweetness and holds its shape during long simmering.
- Onion
- Adds savoury depth and aroma as it softens in the broth.
- Carrot
- Contributes natural sweetness and colour to the soup.
The step that matters
Cook slowly for 3 to 4 hours. Gentle, long simmering lets the vegetables soften fully and their flavours blend into the broth. Boiling hard can break vegetables apart and make the soup cloudy.
Swap the cabbage
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, carrot, potato, tomato, celery, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Okrafits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Cabbagethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, potato, tomato, celery, 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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