Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Carrot Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Stew the sliced carrots in gravy until tender.
Rub the cooked carrots through a fine sieve to achieve a smooth consistency.
Mix the carrot puree to a proper thickness, seasoning with sugar, salt, and cayenne pepper.
Prepare the soup a day in advance for best flavor.
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.
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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + sugartop 28% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,211 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + peppertop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,401 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,401 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Dark colored carrots
- Provide the main body, sweetness and colour of the soup once cooked and puréed.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the earthy flavour of the carrots.
- Gravy
- Cooks the carrots until tender and adds savoury liquid to the purée.
The step that matters
Rub the cooked carrots through a fine sieve. Pressing the carrots through a fine sieve breaks down their fibres and removes lumps, which gives the smooth texture the soup depends on. Skipping this step leaves a grainy, stringy soup.
Swap the carrot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Mustardfits about as well
- Carrotthe original
- Sweet potatofits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper. 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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