Name: Turkey Soup
Ingredients: Beef stock; Carcass of 2 or 3 turkeys; Celery; 1 carrot; 3 onions; 1 cup boiled rice

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 ↓

Turkey Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer beef stock, turkey carcasses, celery, carrot, and onions for 2 hours.
Thicken the soup slightly and strain it.
Add 1 cup of boiled rice to the strained soup.

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).
Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,477 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey carcasses: Release gelatin and flavor into the stock, giving the soup body and a rich meaty taste.
Beef stock: Provides the savory base liquid that carries the flavors of the soup.
Boiled rice: Adds bulk and soft starchy texture to the strained soup.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, turkey, celery, carrot, rice):

Tomatofits better
Leekfits better
Turnipfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, turkey, celery, carrot, rice. 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.