Name: Soupe a LA Bataille
Ingredients: assorted vegetables (e.g., peas, lentils, haricots, beans, potatoes); butter; onion; savoury herbs

Why it works: Potato and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,019 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

assorted vegetables (e.g., peas, lentils, haricots, beans, potatoes)
butter
onion
savoury herbs

Directions

Dice the assorted vegetables and brown them delicately in butter.
Place the browned vegetables in a tureen.
Pour the soup over the vegetables.
For a richer flavor, add more of the main vegetable for the day, such as peas for pea soup.
Rub all ingredients through a sieve for a smooth texture.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Potato + oniontop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together9,019 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Peas + beanstop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together949 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Lentils + beanstop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together135 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).
Beans + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together655 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Peas + potatotop 4% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,016 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

Flavor stand-ins for the lentils

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, beans, potato, butter, onion):

Lima beansbetter flavor fit
Kidney beansbetter flavor fit
Peanutbetter flavor fit
Lentilsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against peas, beans, potato, butter, onion. 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).