Why it works: Turnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Dice the turnip, carrots, potatoes, and onion.
Simmer and serve
Simmer the diced vegetables in the broth for one hour.
Serve with toast cut into dice.
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.
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Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,107 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,555 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
- Turnip
- Adds body and a mild, slightly peppery flavor to the broth.
- Carrots
- Release natural sweetness as they soften during simmering.
- Potatoes
- Their starch loosens into the broth and gives it a slightly fuller body.
- Onion
- Builds the savory, aromatic base of the soup.
- Broth
- Provides the cooking liquid that carries flavor and softens the vegetables.
The step that matters
Simmering the diced vegetables. Simmering gently for the full hour lets the dense root vegetables become tender all the way through. A rolling boil can break the pieces apart and cloud the broth, while stopping early leaves the centers firm.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turnip, carrot, potato, pepper):
- Parsnipfits better
- Leekfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, carrot, potato, pepper. 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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