Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
A Baked Soup
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Bake
In an earthen pan or jug, combine the meat, onions, carrots, rice, split peas, pepper, and salt.
Add the water and cover the pan tightly.
Place the covered pan in the oven and bake for several hours until the ingredients 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Carrot + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,477 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Carrot + peastop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,994 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Split peas
- Provide the main body and thickness of the soup as they soften during baking.
- Rice
- Adds starch that helps thicken the soup and adds body.
- Meat
- Contributes savory flavour and richness to the broth as it cooks.
- Onions
- Build savory flavour as they soften and sweeten during long cooking.
The step that matters
Cover the pan tightly before baking. A tight lid traps steam so the liquid cannot evaporate over several hours. Without it the soup can reduce too far and the peas may cook unevenly.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, onion, carrot, rice, pepper):
- Beansfits better
- Sesamefits better
- Black-eyed peafits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, onion, carrot, rice, 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.
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