Why it works: Turnip and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Chop the turnips, cabbage, carrots, and parsnips very fine.
Cook
Put the chopped vegetables in 3 quarts of water and boil until nearly done.
Add the peeled potatoes and cook until they are reduced to a pulp.
Optionally, add a small quantity of tomatoes, beans, or peas for added richness.
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.
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Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together590 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,097 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,713 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together897 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
- Potatoes
- Break down into a pulp, thickening the broth and giving the soup body.
- Turnips
- Provide firm, finely chopped vegetable body and mild earthy flavor.
- Carrots
- Add sweetness and color to the broth as they soften.
- Parsnips
- Add sweetness and a mild aromatic flavor as they cook.
- Cabbage
- Adds bulk and a mild sweetness as it softens in the broth.
The step that matters
Cook the potatoes until they reduce to a pulp. Potatoes release starch as their cell walls break down, which thickens the broth. Stopping too early leaves the soup thin and the potato pieces firm, while overcooking can make it gluey.
Swap the tomato
The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turnip, cabbage, carrot, parsnip, potato, beans, peas):
- Leekfits better
- Beetrootfits better
- Lettucefits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, cabbage, carrot, parsnip, potato, beans, peas. 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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