Name: Carrots with Ham or Bacon
Ingredients: 3 ounces butter; 1 ounce flour; ½ cup boiling stock or water; ½ pound ham or bacon, cut into ½-inch dice; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste (optional); bouquet garni; 1 clove garlic or 1 large onion; 6 large carrots, sliced

Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Carrots with Ham or Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

Melt the butter in a stewpan.
Mix in the flour and stir for five minutes.
Add the boiling stock or water, stirring with a wooden spoon.

Cook the stew

Stir in the ham or bacon, pepper, optional salt, bouquet garni, and garlic or onion.
Add the sliced carrots to the stewpan.
Boil until the carrots are tender.
Remove the onion and bouquet garni, then serve.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + carrottop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,029 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter: Adds richness and carries flavor through the stew.
Flour: Thickens the stock into a smooth, lightly body-rich sauce.
Ham or bacon: Contributes salty, savory flavor that seasons the whole stew.
Carrots: Provide sweetness and become tender during boiling.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour. Cooking the flour for five minutes in melted butter removes its raw taste and helps it thicken the stock evenly. Adding liquid too quickly, or without stirring, can cause lumps.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, ham, pepper, clove):

Shallotfits about as well
Leekfits about as well
Carrotthe original
Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, ham, pepper, clove. 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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Carrots with Ham or Bacon