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 ↓
A Roast Beef and Boiled Turkey Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
In a soup pot, combine the turkey liquor, turkey bones, beef bones, carrots, turnips, onions, cloves, pepper, salt, and tomatoes.
Boil for 4 hours, then strain the mixture.
Return the soup to the pot and mix the flour with a little cold water, then stir the flour mixture into the soup and bring to a boil.
Add a little soy sauce for color.
Serve
Place the diced bread in the bottom of a tureen and pour the soup over it.
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.
-
Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
-
Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
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
What each ingredient does
- Turkey bones
- Release gelatin and savory flavor into the broth as they simmer for hours.
- Beef bones
- Add deep, rich meaty flavor and body to the broth during long simmering.
- Flour
- Thickens the strained broth into a lightly body-rich soup when brought to a boil.
- Bread
- Soaks up broth in the tureen, adding soft texture and body to each serving.
The step that matters
Bring the flour mixture to a boil. Flour must be whisked into cold water first and then stirred into hot soup; otherwise it clumps. Boiling fully cooks the starch so it thickens smoothly and loses its raw floury taste.
Swap the tomato
The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, beef, carrot, turnip, onion, clove, pepper):
- Leekfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Tomatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, beef, carrot, turnip, onion, clove, pepper. 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.
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Roast Beef211 recipes
Beef Loaf175 recipes