Name: Carrot Soup
Ingredients: 2 quarts beef, veal, or mutton broth; 1 onion, cut into thin pieces; 1 cup bread crumbs (optional); coarse sea salt to taste; toasted bread, cut into ½ inch squares

Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Carrot Soup

Ingredients

2 quarts beef, veal, or mutton broth
1 onion, cut into thin pieces
1 cup bread crumbs (optional)
coarse sea salt to taste
toasted bread, cut into ½ inch squares

Directions

In a stew-pan, combine the broth and onion.
Cover and simmer on low heat for 2.5 hours until the carrots are soft.
If using, add bread crumbs and boil for 2-3 minutes.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve, adding more broth to achieve a thick consistency.
Heat the strained soup in a clean stew-pan and season with salt.
Serve with toasted bread on the side.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,032 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,676 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).