Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Iced Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the stock
Stew the veal and ham in 1 quart of water for 6 hours.
Add the onion, bay leaves, carrot, turnip, parsley, celery, and spices.
Season with salt and pepper.
Stew for an additional 2 hours.
Strain the soup.
Skim the soup well to keep it clear.
Add vegetables and chill
Cut the beans small.
Boil the beans with the peas in the soup for 30 minutes.
Cut small balls from the carrot.
Add the carrot balls before serving.
Chill the soup in a basin filled with rough ice.
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 + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,418 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Turnip + beanstop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together400 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + beanstop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,443 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal
- Releases flavour and body into the water during long stewing, giving the soup its base.
- Ham
- Adds savoury, salty flavour to the stock as it stews.
- Peas
- Soften during boiling and add body and mild sweetness to the soup.
- Beans
- Soften during boiling and add body and texture to the soup.
The step that matters
Skim the soup well. Fat and fine particles rise to the surface as stock simmers and can make it cloudy and greasy. Skimming thoroughly keeps the soup clear.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, beans):
- Lentilsfits better
- Chestnutfits better
- Chickpeafits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, beans. 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.
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