Name: Turnip Broth
Ingredients: 12 turnips, peeled and sliced; 1 knuckle of veal; 1 small piece of beef; ½ hen; rich boiling broth

Why it works: Veal and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,784 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Turnip Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Blanch the turnips in water for a short time and drain them.
Place the turnips, veal, beef, and hen in a stewpan.
Pour rich boiling broth over the ingredients.

Stew and strain

Let the mixture stew for about 2 hours.
Strain the broth through a double silk sieve.

Serve

Serve the broth with rice or vermicelli.

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.

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.

Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,784 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Turnip + beeftop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,940 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Turnip + vealtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,343 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenol (green, grassy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Turnips: Provide the main vegetable flavour and body that the broth is built around.
Veal knuckle: Adds gelatin and savoury depth to the broth as it stews.
Beef: Contributes meaty richness and savoury flavour to the stewed broth.
Hen: Adds richness and savoury flavour, with its collagen giving body to the broth.
Rich boiling broth: Supplies the liquid base and extra savoury flavour for the stew.