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Vegetable Soup

A hearty beef and vegetable soup with carrots, turnip, onion, rice, tomatoes, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Vegetable Soup

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 ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Simmer

  1. Combine the beef, carrots, turnip, onion, and rice in a large pot with cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil and let it boil for three hours.

Season and finish

  1. Season with salt and pepper.

  2. Add the tomatoes half an hour before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

  1. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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

Lean beef
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender and flavorful during long simmering.
Rice
Releases starch as it cooks, which gives the broth body and thickness.
Carrot
Softens during simmering and adds natural sweetness to the broth.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and a bright, savory tang to the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the tomatoes. Tomatoes added too early cook for a long time, which dulls their bright acidity and fresh flavor. Adding them about half an hour before serving keeps their tang and gives them a little body without losing it.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, onion, rice, tomato, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, onion, rice, tomato, 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.

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