Why it works: Turnip and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,001 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Truss and boil the capons until cooked through.
Dish the capons with the glazed tongue in the center.
Sauce with Printaniere sauce.
Cut small deep cups from young turnips and boil them in white broth with butter, sugar, and salt.
Drain the turnip cups on a napkin.
Fill the cups with carrots scooped into small pea or olive shapes and young green peas.
Arrange the filled cups alternately around the dish.
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 + carrottop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together8,001 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + peastop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,994 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Turnip + peastop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,350 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Sauce + buttertop 8% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together15,317 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + peastop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,878 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Sauce and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 15,317 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, turnip, butter, sugar, carrot):
- Beansbetter flavor fit
- Chestnutabout as good a flavor fit
- Peasthe original
- Almondabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, turnip, butter, sugar, carrot. 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).
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IllustrationThe Sunday pairing: one pairing, the chemistry behind it, and how to cook it. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
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