Name: Chestnut-puree with Vegetables
Ingredients: 3 pints warm broth; pinch of sugar; carrots; turnips; white asparagus

Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Chestnut-puree with Vegetables

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare a chestnut puree as directed in article 88.
Dilute the puree with 3 pints of warm broth and pass it through a sieve.
Pour the mixture into a stewpan and bring to a boil, stirring continuously.
Remove from heat and let it simmer for 45 minutes.
Add a pinch of sugar.
Cut carrots and turnips into small balls, blanch them separately, and glaze with broth.
Skim the fat off the soup and mix in the carrots and turnips.
Keep the soup boiling and skim carefully.
After 15 minutes, add the heads of blanched white asparagus cut into 2/3 inch lengths.
Boil the asparagus for 5 minutes and then pour the soup into a tureen.

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 + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + asparagustop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together328 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Carrot + asparagustop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together571 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Sugar + carrottop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,211 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + asparagustop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together488 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).