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 ↓
Julienne Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Shred the onions and fry them in butter until brown.
Add mace, salt, and pepper, then stir in a spoonful of stock.
Mix flour with a little butter until smooth, then add the flour mixture to the onions and fry.
Strain the mixture through a colander.
Add more stock to reach desired consistency.
Add the vegetables
Cut the turnip, carrot, and celery into thin strips.
Boil the vegetables and peas in a little water until tender.
Add the boiled vegetables and their water to the soup.
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.
-
Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
-
Turnip + carrottop 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).
-
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 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
- Onions
- Frying them until brown builds the deep, sweet flavour that forms the soup's base.
- Butter
- Fat for frying the onions and cooking the flour, carrying flavour and adding richness.
- Flour
- Mixed with butter and fried, it thickens the stock into a smooth body.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid of the soup and, with the flour, sets its consistency.
- Turnip
- Cut into thin strips and cooked until tender, adding body and mild sweetness.
The step that matters
Frying the flour mixture with the onions. Cooking the flour and butter for a while removes its raw taste and helps it blend smoothly without lumps, so the thickening stays even when stock is added.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, pepper, flour, turnip, carrot, celery):
- Parsleyfits better
- Thymefits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, pepper, flour, turnip, carrot, celery. 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.
More julienne soup recipes
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Green Peas229 recipes
Carrot Soup134 recipes
Cream of Celery Soup113 recipes
Turnip Soup43 recipes