Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 10,172 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the stock
Place the ham at the bottom of a stewpan.
Add the veal, fowl, mace, onions, celery, turnips, carrot, and sweet herbs.
Pour in ½ pint of water and cover tightly; simmer gently for 30 minutes, ensuring it doesn't burn.
Add boiling water and let it stew until all flavors are extracted.
Strain the mixture into a clean pan and let it settle for 30 minutes.
Skim off the fat and pour the clear liquid into another clean pan.
Make the soup
Soak the roll crumb in ½ pint of cream.
Blanch and finely beat the almonds, adding a little cream to prevent oiling.
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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Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together10,172 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Turnip + carrottop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together8,001 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Celery + turniptop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together4,417 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + carrottop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together21,599 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + turniptop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together7,584 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
- Lean ham
- Gives the stock its savoury, meaty flavour as it simmers.
- Old fowl
- Releases gelatin and rich flavour into the stock during long simmering.
- Almonds
- Thicken the soup and add a smooth, nutty body when finely beaten.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished soup.
- Roll crumb
- Soaked in cream, it helps thicken and give the soup body.
The step that matters
Adding a little cream to the almonds. Ground almonds can separate and release oil when beaten or heated. A little cream helps keep the emulsion smooth and the texture even.
Flavor stand-ins for the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, onion, celery, turnip, carrot, cream):
- Parsleybetter flavor fit
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Pepperbetter flavor fit
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, onion, celery, turnip, carrot, cream. 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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