Why it works: Butter and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Turnip Soup. —
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the turnips
Soak the scooped turnips in cold water.
Drain and dry the turnips on a cloth.
Cook and finish
Fry the turnips in clarified butter and sugar until cinnamon brown.
Drain the turnips on a sieve and place them in a small stew-pan with broth.
Simmer until the turnips are soft, then add to the brown consommé and cook until done.
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.
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Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Turnip + buttertop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,100 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Turnip + sugartop 29% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,330 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Turnips
- Provide the main body and bulk of the soup, softening during simmering.
- Clarified butter
- Fat for frying that promotes browning of the turnips' surface.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the turnips caramelise to a cinnamon-brown colour.
- Brown consommé
- Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries its savoury flavour.
The step that matters
Frying the turnips until cinnamon brown. Sugar caramelises and butter browns at high surface heat, so the turnips can scorch before they colour evenly. Drying them well first keeps them from steaming, which helps them brown.
Swap the turnip
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar):
- Sweet potatofits better
- Leekfits better
- Potatofits better
- Turnipthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar. 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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