Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Onion Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the broth
Boil the mutton in water for 2 hours with carrots, turnips, and shank bone if using.
Strain the broth over 6 sliced and lightly fried onions.
Simmer for 3 hours, skimming the surface carefully.
Serve
Serve with a roll or fried bread.
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.
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,488 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,676 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mutton
- Gives the broth its rich meaty flavour as it cooks slowly in water.
- Onions
- Lightly fried onions add sweetness and deep savoury flavour to the finished soup.
- Carrots
- Add natural sweetness and body to the broth as they cook.
- Turnips
- Add mild sweetness and earthy flavour to the broth as they cook.
The step that matters
Skimming the surface during the long simmer. Fat and fine impurities rise to the surface as the broth simmers. Removing them carefully keeps the soup clear and prevents a greasy, cloudy finish.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, carrot, turnip, bread):
- Leekfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, carrot, turnip, bread. 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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