Name: Boiled Beef and Turnips
Ingredients: 2 pounds beef; 4 medium turnips; water; coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')

Why it works: Beef and turnip are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,940 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Boiled Beef and Turnips

Ingredients

2 pounds beef
4 medium turnips
water
coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt')

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Cook the beef

Place the beef in a large pot and cover with water.
Add a pinch of coarse sea salt.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours.

Add the turnips and serve

Peel and chop the turnips into quarters.
Add the turnips to the pot and cook for an additional 30 minutes until tender.
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.

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.

Beef + turniptop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,940 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef: Slow simmering breaks down connective tissue, leaving the meat tender and rich in flavour.
Turnips: Hold their shape during simmering while softening to a tender, mildly sweet bite.

“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.