Name: Beef Soup
Ingredients: 3 pounds lean beef; 1 can tomatoes; 1 large carrot, chopped; 2 onions, chopped; 2 tablespoons rice; 2 tablespoons coarse sea salt; 1 teaspoon pepper; ½ teaspoon ground cloves; 4 quarts cold water

Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Beef Soup

Ingredients

Directions

In a soup kettle, combine the beef, carrot, onions, rice, and cold water.
Cover and boil slowly for 3 hours.
Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper, and cloves, and boil for an additional 10 minutes.
If using fresh tomatoes, peel them and add to the kettle 40 minutes before serving.

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.

Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,606 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef: Provides the main body and rich meaty flavor as it slowly simmers.
Rice: Releases starch that gently thickens the broth as it cooks.
Tomatoes: Add acidity and a tangy flavor that balances the rich broth.
Onions: Build savory sweetness and aroma as they soften in the broth.

Swap the clove

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

Celeryfits better
Cuminfits better
Parsleyfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, tomato, carrot, onion, 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.