Name: On Stock, and Clear Soups
Ingredients: cold water; meat; vegetables; bouquet of sweet herbs; sugar; sauce; ketchup

Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

On Stock, and Clear Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Cover the meat with cold water in a large open vessel.
Slowly bring to a boil, skimming carefully.
Once skimming is complete, add the vegetables, bouquet of herbs, sugar, sauce, and ketchup.
Simmer for three hours.
Strain the broth to obtain clear beef consomme.
Skim off any fat while simmering and save it for frying.
If the consomme is not clear, clarify it by adding small pieces of raw beef and reheating.

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.

Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,099 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + ketchuptop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together260 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,147 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Meat + saucetop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,167 recipes
Meat + ketchuptop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together443 recipes