Name: Potages, a LA Golbe
Ingredients: 2 carrots, diced; 2 turnips, diced; 1 cup green peas; 1 cup string beans, cut into pieces; 4 cups cold water; Salt, to taste; 4 cups warm broth; 4 poached eggs

Why it works: Carrot and turnip are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,001 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

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

Directions

Cook the vegetables

Combine the diced carrots, turnips, green peas, and string beans with cold water and salt in a pan.
Boil gently until the vegetables are tender, then drain.

Finish and serve

Return the vegetables to the pan, cover with warm broth, and boil gently for 2–3 minutes.
Transfer the mixture to a soup dish and add one poached egg for each person.

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.

Carrot + turniptop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together8,001 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Peas + beanstop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together949 recipes

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

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,441 recipes

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

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together2,994 recipes

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

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together400 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

Carrots: Hold their shape and add sweetness and colour to the soup.
Turnips: Add body and a mild, slightly peppery flavour as they soften.
Green peas: Add sweetness and a soft, tender texture to the soup.
String beans: Add a fresh, grassy flavour and some texture to the soup.
Poached eggs: Add richness and a soft, creamy yolk that enriches the broth.

Flavor stand-ins for the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, peas, beans, egg):

Asparagusbetter flavor fit
Tomatobetter flavor fit
Sweet potatobetter flavor fit
Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, peas, beans, egg. 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.