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 ↓
Carrot Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the soup
Wash and scrape the carrots, then slice them.
Combine the sliced carrots, onion, celery (or celery seed), broth, and meat bones in a saucepan.
Cover and simmer over moderate heat for 2.5 to 3 hours until the vegetables are soft.
Finish and serve
Strain the mixture through a sieve, discarding the solids.
If the soup is too thick, thin it with additional broth or hot water.
Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper, then bring to a boil.
Serve with toasted bread cut into dice or fry stale bread slices in a little fat until light brown, then serve.
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 + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together16,012 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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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 + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Carrots
- Provide the main body of flavour and sweetness, and thicken the soup as they soften.
- Broth
- Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the vegetables and bones.
- Onion
- Adds savoury depth and aroma to the broth as it simmers.
- Celery
- Contributes a savoury, aromatic background flavour to the soup.
The step that matters
Simmering until the vegetables are soft. Long, gentle simmering breaks down the carrot's cell walls so it becomes tender and releases its sugars and flavour. Undercooked carrots leave the straining step sticky and the soup thin and gritty.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, celery, meat, pepper, bread):
- Capsicumfits better
- Tomatofits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, celery, meat, pepper, bread. 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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