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 ↓
Turkey Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Crack all the bones and cut up the cold turkey meat.
Add the onion, carrot, turnip, celery, parsley, and any additional vegetables.
Simmer and finish
Boil slowly for 2 to 3 hours.
Strain the soup and add boiled rice or barley.
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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,810 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,418 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cold turkey meat
- Provides the main protein and flavor of the soup.
- Turkey bones
- Release flavor and gelatin into the broth during slow boiling.
- Onion
- Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the broth.
- Carrot
- Adds natural sweetness and body as it softens in the broth.
- Celery
- Contributes aroma and savory background flavor to the broth.
The step that matters
Boil slowly for 2 to 3 hours. A gentle simmer extracts flavor from the bones and meat while keeping the broth clear. A hard rolling boil can make the broth cloudy and emulsify fat into it.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, meat, carrot, turnip, celery, parsley, rice):
- Leekfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Lettucefits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, meat, carrot, turnip, celery, parsley, rice. 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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