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Buchanan Carrot Soup

A carrot soup flavored with curry powder and cayenne pepper, optionally enriched with curry paste and pearl barley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Buchanan Carrot Soup

Why it works: Pepper and carrot 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 ↓

Buchanan Carrot Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, mix the stock with a little liquid and the curry powder.

  2. Boil for 10 minutes.

  3. Season with cayenne pepper and stir in the cooked carrots.

  4. Let the soup sit by the fire without simmering for 10 more minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Optionally, add a spoonful of curry paste for flavor.

  2. Add small pieces of cold vegetables or pearl barley that has been soaked and boiled for added texture.

  3. Serve immediately.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

  1. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Carrot + barleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together784 recipes

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

  3. Beef + barleytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together458 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Brown stock or beef broth
Forms the liquid base and provides the savory body of the soup.
Curry powder
Supplies the main spiced aroma and flavor of the soup.
Cooked carrots
Add sweetness, body and color, thickening the soup slightly as they break down.
Pearl barley
Adds chewy texture to the soup when soaked and boiled first.

The step that matters

Let the soup sit without simmering. Holding the soup just below a simmer lets the curry flavors blend with the carrots without boiling them harshly, keeping the texture smooth and the flavor balanced.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, barley):

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Carrotthe original
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Capsicumfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, barley. 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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