Name: Brunoise Soup
Ingredients: 2 cups of mixed vegetables (carrots, celery, onions); 4 cups of chicken or vegetable broth; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste; 1 tablespoon of butter

Why it works: Carrot and celery 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 ↓

Brunoise Soup

Ingredients

2 cups of mixed vegetables (carrots, celery, onions)
4 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of butter

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Melt the butter in a pot over medium heat.
Add the mixed vegetables and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes.
Pour in the broth and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper before serving.

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.

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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mixed vegetables: Provide the main body of the soup and its flavor as they soften and release sweetness.
Broth: Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor and cooks the vegetables through simmering.
Butter: Adds richness and helps sauté the vegetables without sticking.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, celery, chicken, pepper, butter):

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Tomatofits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, celery, chicken, pepper, 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.