Why it works: Celery and carrot 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 ↓
A Gravy Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the stock
Boil the beef, ham, and mutton in enough water to extract the meat's flavor.
In a separate pot, boil the celery, thyme, onions or leeks, carrots, and turnips until soft.
Squeeze the softened vegetables to extract their juice and add it to the broth.
Strain the mixture and transfer it to an earthen vessel overnight.
Finish and serve
Remove the fat from the top before reheating the soup.
Reheat the clarified stock in a stewpan, skimming off any scum that rises.
Season with white pepper, salt, and mace before serving.
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.
-
Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
-
Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,418 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Thyme + carrottop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together4,563 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
-
Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,193 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lean beef
- Provides the main meaty flavor and body of the stock.
- Lean ham
- Adds savory, salty depth to the broth.
- Mutton neck scrag-end
- Adds richer meat flavor and gelatin-rich body to the stock.
- Carrots
- Contribute natural sweetness and aromatic body to the broth.
- Turnips
- Add mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the broth.
The step that matters
Remove the fat from the top before reheating the soup.. Fat that is not removed after chilling forms a greasy layer and can make the finished soup heavy and greasy on the palate. Chilling overnight lets the fat solidify on the surface so it lifts off cleanly.
Swap the thyme
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, ham, mutton, celery, onion, carrot, turnip):
- Parsleyfits about as well
- Thymethe original
- Marjoramfits about as well
- Pepperfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, mutton, celery, onion, carrot, turnip. 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.
More gravy soup recipes
You might also like
Beef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Roast Beef211 recipes
Beef Loaf175 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.