Why it works: Turnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Ribs or Sirloin of Beef Boned
Ingredients
Directions
Use a sharp, thin-bladed knife to remove the bones from the beef.
Roll the meat tightly and tie it securely with string.
Cook the rolled beef until done.
Remove the string and serve the meat with a garnish of cooked vegetables.
For garnish, cut turnips into cup shapes and fill with cooked peas.
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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Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,107 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Peas + carrottop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,994 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Turnip + potatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together562 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,052 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, turnip, carrot, potato):
- Beansfits better
- Lentilsfits better
- Chickpeafits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, turnip, carrot, potato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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