Why it works: Pepper and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Soup of Carrots
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the carrots in water until soft.
Pound the carrots in a mortar and mix with onions.
Add the boiling liquid, sweet herbs, pepper, salt, mace, and cloves.
Boil for about an hour, then strain through a sieve.
Return to heat and boil until thick like rich cream.
Place dry boiled rice in a tureen and pour the soup over it.
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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Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together17,451 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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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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Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,400 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Carrot + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,477 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, pepper, clove, rice):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, pepper, clove, rice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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