Name: Soup Stock
Ingredients: 1 carrot; 1 turnip; 1 potato; 1 tomato; ¼ cup barley; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; 1 teaspoon celery seed; salt to taste; pepper or paprika to taste

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Chop the carrot, turnip, potato, and tomato.
In a large pot, combine all the chopped vegetables with barley and parsley.
Add celery seed, salt, and pepper or paprika.

Simmer

Cover with water and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for at least 1 hour.

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.

Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 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

Barley: Adds body and thickens the stock as its starch releases during simmering.
Potato: Releases starch that adds body and a slightly thicker texture to the stock.
Carrot: Contributes natural sweetness and aromatic flavor to the stock.
Tomato: Adds acidity and savory depth to the stock.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, potato, barley, parsley, celery, pepper):

Parsnipfits better
Leekfits better
Spinachfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, potato, barley, parsley, 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.