Name: A Baked Soup
Ingredients: 1 pound of any kind of meat; 2 onions; 2 carrots; 2 ounces of rice; 1 pint of split peas (or whole ones, previously soaked); pepper; salt; 1 gallon of water

Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,555 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

A Baked Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the meat into slices.

Bake

Place the meat, onions, carrots, rice, split peas, pepper, and salt into an earthen pan.
Add 1 gallon of water and cover the pan tightly.
Bake in the oven until cooked through.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together21,601 recipes

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

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together2,477 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Carrot + peastop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together2,994 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Split peas: Break down during baking to thicken the soup and give it body.
Rice: Softens during baking and adds body to the soup.
Meat: Releases flavor into the broth as it cooks slowly in the covered pan.
Onions: Build savory aroma and sweetness as they soften in the liquid.
Carrots: Soften and add gentle sweetness and color to the broth.

The step that matters

Cover the pan tightly. A tight lid keeps steam and liquid in so the peas and rice cook through rather than drying out or scorching in the oven.

Flavor stand-ins for the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, onion, carrot, rice, pepper):

Beansbetter flavor fit
Sesamebetter flavor fit
Black-eyed peabetter flavor fit
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, onion, carrot, rice, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.