Why it works: Turnip and kidney beans work together. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and 13 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
In a stew-pan, combine all the vegetables: carrots, turnips, parsnips, cabbage, celery, leeks, potatoes, onions, lettuce, chervil, sorrel, asparagus tops, green kidney beans, and green peas.
Add the butter, sugar, and salt to the vegetables. Cover the stew-pan and let the mixture stew for a few minutes.
Pour in the broth and bring to a boil until all the vegetables are tender.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Turnip + kidney beanstop 19% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together13 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together10,172 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,096 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Turnip + leektop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,046 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + parsniptop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together589 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
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and helps the vegetables soften gently while they stew.
- Carrots
- Contribute body, mild sweetness and colour to the broth as they cook soft.
- Potatoes
- Break down slightly as they cook, thickening the soup and adding body.
The step that matters
Stewing the vegetables covered before adding the broth. Stewing covered in butter, sugar and salt draws out moisture and softens the vegetables without browning them. Adding the broth too early would dilute this and make the flavour thinner.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, parsnip, cabbage, celery, leek, potato):
- Beetrootbetter flavor fit
- Lettucebetter flavor fit
- Chiveabout as good a flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, parsnip, cabbage, celery, leek, potato. 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.
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