Name: Beetroot Soup
Ingredients: 2 large beetroots; 2 good-sized onions; 1 tablespoon corn flour; 1-2 tablespoons vinegar; 1 tablespoon brown sugar; pinch of thyme; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Thyme and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Beetroot Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Peel the beetroots and boil them until tender.
Mince the boiled beetroots finely and add them to the cooking water or stock.
Add corn flour for slight consistency and a pinch of thyme.
Stir in vinegar, brown sugar, and season with pepper and salt to taste.

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.

Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,171 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Beetroot + thymetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together171 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Beetroot + flourtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together515 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Beetroot + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,261 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Beetroots: Provide the main body, earthy flavour and colour of the soup.
Corn flour: Thickens the liquid slightly so the soup has a light consistency.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the earthy sweetness of the beetroot.
Brown sugar: Balances the acidity and earthiness with a touch of sweetness.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beetroot, corn, flour, vinegar, sugar, thyme, pepper):

Parsnipfits better
Shallotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beetroot, corn, flour, vinegar, sugar, thyme, 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.