Why it works: Carrot and turnip are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,001 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the broth
Cut up the beef and veal and boil them in 10 quarts of water all day, skimming frequently.
Add the white peppercorns, mace, and bay leaves, keeping the pot covered to maintain water level.
Strain the broth into a stone jar and let it cool overnight.
Remove the fat the next day; you will have a strong jelly.
Make the vegetable infusion
Cover the chopped carrots, turnips, and onions with hot water and steep for 2 hours.
Finish and serve
Strain the vegetable water into the soup pot and add the jelly; boil for 30 minutes.
Beat the eggs and stir them in; let it boil for 10 minutes.
Keep the soup hot without boiling, adding 1 cup of cold water.
Season to taste with essence of celery or cloves if desired.
Strain the soup through a flannel bag before serving.
If cooled, reheat the soup before serving very hot.
Add white wine to the tureen if desired.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Carrot + turniptop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together8,001 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Beef + oniontop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,091 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + oniontop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together21,599 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + vealtop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,784 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Turnip + oniontop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together7,584 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
- Beef and veal shins
- Release gelatin and meat flavour into the water, forming a strong jelly as the broth cools.
- Eggs
- Coagulate as they heat, trapping particles so the broth clears.
- Carrots, turnips, and onions
- Add sweetness and vegetable flavour to the broth through steeping and boiling.
- White wine
- Adds acidity and aroma to the finished soup.
The step that matters
Stirring in the eggs and boiling gently. Egg whites coagulate as they heat and collect cloudy particles, which clarifies the broth. Vigorous boiling breaks the coagulated mass apart and leaves the soup cloudy, so it should simmer gently while the egg sets.
Flavor stand-ins for the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, carrot, turnip, onion, white wine, egg):
- Parsleybetter flavor fit
- Celerybetter flavor fit
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, carrot, turnip, onion, white wine, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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