Name: Soup a LA Julienne
Ingredients: 3 carrots, cut into fillets; 3 turnips, cut into fillets; 2 large sticks of celery, cut into fillets; 3 onions, cut into fillets; 3 leeks, cut into fillets; 2 ounces of butter; 3 quarts of strong stock; 2 lettuces, shredded; a few leaves of sorrel; a few leaves of chervil; ¼ pint of French beans, cut in lozenge form; 1 tablespoon of coarse sea salt; ½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper; 1 lump of sugar; bread, fried in dice

Why it works: Lettuce and sorrel match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 317 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

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.

Lettuce + sorreltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together317 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Leek + sorreltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together112 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,046 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + sorreltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together179 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Carrots: Provide sweetness, colour and body to the soup as they soften in the stock.
Butter: Fat that gently softens the vegetables before the stock is added, adding richness.
Strong stock: Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries the flavour of the vegetables.
Leeks: Add a mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the soup base.
Lettuces: Added near the end to contribute a fresh, tender green texture.

The step that matters

Frying the vegetables in butter over low heat. Gentle heat softens the vegetables and builds sweetness without browning them too much, so the soup stays light and mild. Fierce heat can scorch the butter and make the broth taste bitter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, celery, leek, butter, lettuce, sorrel):

Endivefits better
Parsnipfits better
Beetrootfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, celery, leek, butter, lettuce, sorrel. 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.

Soup a LA Julienne