Name: Beef Soup
Ingredients: 1 soup bone; 1 small onion; 6 potatoes; 3 turnips; salt; pepper; 1 teacup of soup; crackers or noodles (optional)

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

Boil the soup bone in water for about 4 hours.
Remove the meat from the bone and set it aside in a chopping bowl.
Return the bones to the kettle.
Slice the onion, potatoes, and turnips thinly.
Add the sliced vegetables to the soup.
Boil until all vegetables are tender.
Ensure the soup volume is at least 1 gallon.
Stir in rolled crackers or noodles just before serving.

Make the meat loaf

Chop the reserved meat finely while warm.
Season the chopped meat with salt and pepper.
Mix the seasoned meat with 1 teacup of the soup saved before adding vegetables.
Pack the mixture into a dish.
Refrigerate the dish to slice for tea or lunch when cold.

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.

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.

Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,585 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Potato + turniptop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together562 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,252 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

Soup bone: Releases flavor and gelatin into the water during the long boil, giving the broth body.
Potatoes: Soften during simmering and thicken the broth slightly as their starch releases.
Turnips: Soften during simmering, adding mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the broth.
Onion: Adds aroma and savory depth to the broth as it cooks.