Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Another Scotch Hare Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the stock
Stew the bones in water with celery, onions, black pepper, salt, and cold meat bones.
Prepare the rice and blood
Brown the rice and mix it with browned butter.
Break the blood of the hare in water, strain it, and add it to the browned rice, stirring constantly until it boils.
Finish the soup
Add the strained stock and pieces of hare, then stew until done.
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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Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Celery + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,169 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 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
- Rice
- Thickens the soup as it cooks and gives a toasty, nutty flavour when browned.
- Blood of the hare
- Thickens the soup and adds richness and a deep, savoury colour.
- Browned butter
- Adds a nutty, toasted aroma and fat that carries flavour.
- Cold meat bones
- Release gelatine and savoury flavour into the stock as they stew.
The step that matters
Stirring the blood into the rice. Blood thickens when heated and can curdle or scorch if it boils too fast or is left unstirred. Constant stirring keeps it smooth and evenly blended into the soup.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, pepper, meat, rice, butter):
- Carrotfits better
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against celery, pepper, meat, rice, butter. 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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