Why it works: Carrot and turnip 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 ↓
Bean Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beans
Soak the beans overnight in 2 quarts of water.
In the morning, drain the beans and put them in fresh water with the onion and beef fat.
Cook and finish
Cook until very soft, then mash or press through a colander to remove the skins.
Add enough water to make 2 quarts of somewhat thick soup.
Season with salt and pepper.
For variations, add pork or ham bone, red pepper, or chopped fried vegetables an hour before serving.
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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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Beef + porktop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,690 recipes
Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).
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Beans + turniptop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together400 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Beans + carrottop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,443 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 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
- Dried beans
- Provide the main body of the soup and thicken it when mashed.
- Beef fat
- Adds richness and a savory flavor to the soup.
- Onion
- Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the broth.
The step that matters
Cook until very soft, then mash or press through a colander. Beans must be fully tender before mashing, or the skins and firm pieces will stay gritty. Pressing through a colander removes the skins, giving a smooth, evenly thick soup.
Swap the carrot
The recipe marks carrot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, onion, beef, pepper, pork, turnip):
- Leekfits about as well
- Potatofits about as well
- Okrafits about as well
- Carrotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beans, onion, beef, pepper, pork, turnip. 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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