Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 10,172 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: soy (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Make the broth
Place the chopped onions, carrots, and celery in a large stewpan.
Cut the beef into small pieces and layer the beef on top of the vegetables.
Sprinkle the beef with salt and pepper.
Cook the beef on the stove for about 1 hour.
Add 5 quarts of water to the stewpan and bring the water to a boil.
Skim off any scum that rises.
Add ½ pint of cold water, soy sauce, parsley, thyme, allspice, and mace.
Simmer the soup for 4 hours.
Strain the soup through a fine cloth.
Remove any remaining fat with a paper towel.
Prepare the garnish
Cook the rice in boiling water until tender.
Heat the preserved peas in boiling water.
Combine the cooked rice, peas, and diced ham in a tureen.
Serve
Pour the boiling soup over the mixture.
Serve immediately.
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 + celerytop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together10,172 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together8,053 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together9,057 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Thyme + allspicetop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,077 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Celery + parsleytop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together6,805 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lean beef
- Provides the main meaty flavor and body as it simmers into the broth.
- Onions
- Build the aromatic base of the broth, adding sweetness and depth as they cook.
- Carrots
- Add natural sweetness and body to the broth.
- Celery
- Contributes savory, aromatic flavor to the broth.
- Rice
- Adds bulk and a soft, starchy texture to the finished bowl.
- Lean cooked ham
- Adds salty, savory meaty flavor to the bowl.
The step that matters
Skim and strain the broth. Scum that rises during boiling can cloud the soup and taste bitter, and any remaining fat can make it greasy. Skimming and straining give a clearer, cleaner broth.
Flavor stand-ins for the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, carrot, celery, parsley, thyme, allspice):
- Marjorambetter flavor fit
- Winter savorybetter flavor fit
- Pepperbetter flavor fit
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, celery, parsley, thyme, allspice. 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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