Name: Carrot Soup
Ingredients: 1 pound veal; 2 tablespoons rice; 3 quarts cold water; 2 stalks celery, chopped; 1 quart sliced carrots; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 pint milk; Salt to taste; Cayenne pepper to taste

Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Carrot Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

Combine the veal, carrots, and chopped celery with the cold water in a large pot.
Cook for 2 hours.
Remove the veal and strain the vegetables through a sieve.
Return the strained liquid to the pot, add the veal cut into pieces and the rice.
Cook until the rice is done.

Finish and serve

Stir in the milk, butter, salt, and cayenne pepper.
Serve hot.

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.

Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Rice + carrottop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,477 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Carrots: Provide the main vegetable body, sweetness and colour to the broth.
Rice: Thickens the soup as its starch softens during cooking.
Milk: Adds creaminess and a softer, richer texture to the finished soup.
Butter: Adds fat for a smoother mouthfeel and richer flavour.
Veal: Contributes meat flavour and body to the broth.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, rice, carrot, butter, milk, pepper):

Parsleyfits about as well
Celerythe original
Cinnamonfits about as well
Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, rice, carrot, butter, milk, pepper. 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.