Name: Clear Soup with Rice, or Puree of Carrots
Ingredients: 4 cups of clear broth; ½ cup of rice; 2 cups of carrots, chopped; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste

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 ↓

Clear Soup with Rice, or Puree of Carrots

Ingredients

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.

Make the soup

In a pot, bring the clear broth to a boil.
Add the rice and cook until tender, about 15 minutes.

Make the carrot puree

For the puree, boil the chopped carrots until soft.
Blend the carrots with a little broth until smooth.
Season both the soup and puree with salt and pepper.

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 + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,477 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Clear broth: Forms the liquid base that the rice cooks in and the puree is thinned with.
Rice: Absorbs liquid and softens as it cooks, thickening the soup body.
Carrots: Break down into a smooth puree that adds body, sweetness and color.