Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Smoked Meat, Hash of
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the carrots into long strips or small dice.
Stew the carrots in broth with coarse sea salt and butter until soft.
Brown a little flour in butter, then drain the broth from the carrots into it.
Add vinegar, sugar, and pepper to the mixture, stir, and boil until it forms a creamy sauce.
Cut the smoked meat into small dice or slices and add it to the carrots.
Pour the sauce over the mixture, stir well, and let it stew for 15 minutes.
If desired, stew a minced onion with the carrots.
Serve the hash with potatoes or klosse.
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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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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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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,029 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, butter, flour, vinegar, sugar, pepper, meat):
- Capsicumfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Mustardfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, butter, flour, vinegar, sugar, pepper, meat. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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