Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Carrot Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel and slice the carrots and onions.
Cook
Fry the onions and carrots in a saucepan with oil or butter.
Add the stock, pepper, and salt.
When the vegetables are tender, remove them.
Blend and serve
Pulp the vegetables through a sieve into a basin.
Add enough of the stock to achieve the desired thickness.
Return the soup to the fire.
Bring the soup to a boil.
Serve the soup with toast sippets.
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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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Carrots
- Form the main body of the soup and give it its sweet flavor and color.
- Onions
- Add savory depth and aroma when fried before the liquid goes in.
- Stock
- Provides the liquid that cooks the vegetables and sets the final thickness.
- Oil or butter
- Carries heat into the vegetables and adds richness to the frying step.
The step that matters
Pulp the vegetables through a sieve. Pressing the cooked vegetables through a sieve breaks down their cell walls into a smooth purée. Adding stock afterward lets you control thickness without thinning the flavor.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, butter, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Potatofits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, butter, pepper. 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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