Name: Veal Soup
Ingredients: 1 gallon cold water; 1 shank of veal; 12 tomatoes, chopped; 2 onions, chopped; 2 turnips, chopped; 2 carrots, chopped; Salt and pepper to taste; Toasted bread (optional)

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 ↓

Veal Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

Combine the cold water and veal shank in a large pot; bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours.
Chop the tomatoes, onions, turnips, and carrots; add them to the pot along with salt and pepper.
Continue to boil for an additional hour.

Serve

If desired, cut toasted bread into small pieces and place them at the bottom of the serving tureen before adding the soup.

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.

Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,585 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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).
Onion + carrottop 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

Veal shank: Releases flavour and gelatin into the broth during long simmering, giving body to the soup.
Tomatoes: Add acidity and a fresh, savoury flavour that balances the rich broth.
Onions: Contribute sweetness and aroma as they soften in the broth.
Carrots: Add natural sweetness and body to the broth as they cook.
Turnips: Add a mild, slightly peppery flavour and soft texture to the soup.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, tomato, turnip, carrot, pepper, bread):

Capsicumfits better
Parsnipfits better
Leekfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, tomato, turnip, carrot, pepper, bread. 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.