Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Portable Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a large cauldron.
Add the meat and bones, anchovies, and mace.
Wash and chop the celery, then add it to the cauldron along with the sliced carrots.
Cover the cauldron tightly and set it over moderate heat.
When the gravy begins to draw, keep removing it until fully extracted.
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 + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,606 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,784 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Beef + celerytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,370 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Mace + carrottop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,592 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Veal
- Provides the main meat flavor and body for the broth as it cooks down.
- Beef
- Adds deeper meaty flavor and richness to the broth.
- Anchovies
- Contribute savory depth that rounds out the broth's flavor.
- Celery
- Adds aromatic, vegetal flavor to the broth.
- Carrots
- Add gentle sweetness and aroma to the broth.
The step that matters
Keeping the lid on and the heat moderate. A tightly covered pot over moderate heat holds in steam and moisture so the meat and vegetables release flavor slowly into the liquid. Too much heat can boil the broth hard, making it cloudy and evaporating it before the flavors are extracted.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, ham, butter, celery, carrot):
- Parsleyfits better
- Marjoramfits better
- Thymefits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, ham, butter, celery, carrot. 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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