Name: Soup Stock
Ingredients: 1½ lbs. of meat and bone; 1 piece of suet; 1 turnip; 1 large carrot; 1 onion; peppercorns; salt; 1 egg

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 ↓

Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the meat into equal pieces, allowing one piece for every two pupils.
Place 4 pieces of meat on each plate, one plate for each 4 pairs.
Cut the suet into equal pieces and place on the same plates.
Wash the turnip and carrot, then slice them into 4 slices each and place on a saucer for every 8 pupils.
Slice the onion into 2 slices and place on a saucer for every 4 pairs.
Put peppercorns on the saucers with the vegetables.
Ensure salt and pepper shakers are filled.
Beat the egg white slightly for clearing the soup and place ½ beaten egg white on a saucer for every 8 pupils.

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.

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.

Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,585 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,364 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Meat + carrottop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,905 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).