Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Turnip-soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the vegetables
Peel the turnips and cut them into small balls, the size of a large pea.
Place the turnip balls in a stewpan with tepid water.
Mince the onion and leek, then sauté them in butter until slightly colored.
Add the turnip trimmings and fry for 10 minutes.
Make the soup
Sprinkle a pinch of flour over the mixture and stir.
Dilute with 2-3 quarts of warm broth and heat until it starts to boil.
Remove from heat and add a piece of raw ham or a ham bone.
Once the turnips are cooked, skim off the fat and strain the soup to keep the liquid.
Finish and serve
Drain the turnip balls on a cloth and sauté them in a flat stewpan with butter and a pinch of powdered sugar until colored.
Drain the butter and add the turnip balls to the soup, boiling until they are done, 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.
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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Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,046 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + leektop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,326 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).
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Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Turnip + flourtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,874 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Leek + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together328 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Turnips
- Provide the main body and flavor of the soup, and the turnip balls that are colored and added as garnish.
- Onion
- Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens and browns slightly in butter.
- Leek
- Adds a mild, sweet aroma to the base as it cooks gently in butter.
- Butter
- Carries flavor and adds richness, and browns the vegetables and turnip balls.
- Flour
- Lightly thickens the base so the broth clings to the vegetables.
- Raw ham or ham bone
- Adds savory, meaty flavor to the broth as it heats.
The step that matters
Sautéing the turnip balls until colored. Browning relies on the Maillard reaction, which needs a dry surface and moderate heat. Wet or crowded turnip balls steam instead, so they stay pale and bland.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turnip, leek, butter, flour, ham, sugar):
- Shallotfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Chivefits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, leek, butter, flour, ham, sugar. 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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