Name: Vegetable Soup
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons beef dripping or butter; ⅓ cup carrot, diced; ⅓ cup turnip, diced; ⅓ cup celery, diced; 1 tablespoon onion, chopped; 1½ cups potatoes, diced; 4 cups boiling water; 1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Vegetable Soup

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.

In a large pot, heat the beef dripping or butter over medium heat.
Add the diced carrot, turnip, celery, and onion; sauté for 5 minutes.
Stir in the diced potatoes and pour in the boiling water.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Add the chopped parsley before serving.

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.

Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,418 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Carrot: Adds sweetness and body as it softens during simmering.
Potatoes: Break down slightly as they cook, giving the soup body and thickness.
Beef dripping or butter: Carries flavor into the sautéed vegetables and adds richness.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, celery, potato, parsley):

Parsnipfits better
Leekfits better
Chivefits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, celery, potato, parsley. 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.