Name: Macedoine of Vegetables
Ingredients: carrots; turnips; parsnips; canned peas; finely chopped parsley; melted butter; seasonings

Why it works: Turnip and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Macedoine of Vegetables

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cook equal quantities of carrots, turnips, and parsnips separately until tender.
Cut the cooked vegetables into cubes and drain them.

Combine and serve

Mix the drained vegetables together, then add canned peas and finely chopped parsley.
Add melted butter and season to taste.
Serve in a hot dish or as a border around meat or fish.

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.

Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together590 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,097 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Parsnip + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together484 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Carrots: Provide the main body, sweetness and colour of the mixed vegetables.
Turnips: Add a mild, slightly peppery flavour and firm texture to the cubes.
Parsnips: Contribute natural sweetness and a soft, tender bite.
Melted butter: Adds fat and richness, coating the vegetables and carrying flavour.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, parsnip, parsley, butter):

Lentilsfits better
Chickpeafits better
Chestnutfits better
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, parsnip, parsley, butter. 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.