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 ↓
Cold Beef Bone, Heces of Steak, Etc
Ingredients
Directions
In a large pot, combine water, carrots, turnips, onion, cloves, pepper, salt, and tomatoes.
Boil gently for 3-4 hours.
Strain the mixture and return the soup to the pot.
Mix flour with a little water to form a paste, then stir it into the soup.
Let the soup boil for 10 minutes.
Serve with fine pieces of toast.
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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Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the tomato
The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, onion, clove, pepper, flour):
- Parsnipfits better
- Leekfits better
- Okrafits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, onion, clove, pepper, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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