Name: Soup Sante, or Gravy Soup
Ingredients: 1 pound lean ham, sliced; 2 ounces butter; 2 pounds lean beef; 2 pounds lean veal; 6 onions, sliced; 1 carrot, sliced; 2 turnips, sliced; 2 heads celery, chopped; 1 bunch sweet herbs; 6 cloves; 2 blades mace; 3 quarts boiling water; Salt, to taste; Cayenne pepper, to taste; 1 carrot, cut into 2-inch pieces; 1 turnip, sliced; 2 leeks, chopped; 2 heads celery, chopped; 2 heads endive, chopped; 2 cabbage lettuces, chopped; A little sorrel; A little chervil; Crust of a French roll, for serving

Why it works: Ham and endive work together. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and 11 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

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.

Ham + endivetop 23% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together11 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together10,172 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Carrot + turniptop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together8,001 recipes

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

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together17,091 recipes

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

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together4,417 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

Lean beef: Breaks down during stewing to give the soup its meaty body and flavour.
Lean veal: Adds gelatine-rich body and a delicate meaty flavour to the stock.
Lean ham: Contributes salty, savoury depth to the broth as it cooks.
Onions: Soften and sweeten as they cook, adding aromatic depth to the broth.
Butter: Adds fat that carries flavour and helps the meat and vegetables brown lightly at the start.
Celery: Adds aromatic, savoury background flavour to the broth and vegetables.

The step that matters

Gently cook until the mixture sticks. Slow cooking of the meat, vegetables and butter with only a little water lightly browns the base and builds concentrated flavour. Heat that is too high can scorch it and make the soup bitter.

Flavor stand-ins for the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, beef, veal, onion, carrot, celery):

Potatobetter flavor fit
Tomatobetter flavor fit
Leekbetter flavor fit
Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, beef, veal, onion, carrot, celery. 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.

Soup Sante, or Gravy Soup

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

Make the soup

Add the vegetables and serve