Name: Buchanan Carrot Soup
Ingredients: 2 quarts good brown stock (or strong beef broth); 1 tablespoon fine curry powder; 6 to 8 ounces Patna rice (boiled dry and tender); Cayenne pepper (to taste); Optional: cold vegetables, cut small

Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Buchanan Carrot Soup

Ingredients

2 quarts good brown stock (or strong beef broth)
1 tablespoon fine curry powder
6 to 8 ounces Patna rice (boiled dry and tender)
Cayenne pepper (to taste)
Optional: cold vegetables, cut small

Directions

In a pot, mix the curry powder with a little stock until smooth.
Add this mixture to the brown stock and boil for 10 minutes.
Season with cayenne pepper to taste.
Stir in the boiled rice and let it sit by the fire for 10 minutes without simmering.
Serve immediately, adding cold vegetables if desired.

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 + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,971 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,265 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).