Why it works: Leek and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Julienne Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the vegetables
Cut the carrot, leek, turnip, onion, and celery into thin, long shreds and place them in a bowl of cold water.
Drain the vegetables and fry them in butter until golden brown.
Simmer the soup
Drain off the butter and add enough stock to cover the vegetables; let it nearly boil.
Combine this mixture with the required amount of stock or broth and simmer gently for 2 hours.
If using, boil asparagus tips, peas, or lettuce in weak stock or plain water until tender, then add to the soup before serving.
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.
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Leek + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,046 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Leek + asparagustop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together73 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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, body and colour to the soup as it cooks down.
- Turnip
- Contributes a mild, slightly peppery flavour and firm texture to the shreds.
- Leek
- Adds a gentle onion-like sweetness and aroma to the broth.
- Onion
- Builds savoury depth and aroma as it softens and browns in butter.
- Celery
- Adds aromatic, savoury flavour to the stock base.
- Butter
- Carries the frying heat and browns the vegetables, adding richness and flavour.
The step that matters
Frying the vegetables until golden brown. Frying in butter browns the vegetable sugars and proteins, building flavour. Overcooking turns the shreds bitter and dark, while underdone shreds taste raw and flat in the broth.
Swap the asparagus
The recipe marks asparagus as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, leek, turnip, onion, celery, butter):
- Parsnipfits better
- Chivefits better
- Lettucefits better
- Asparagusthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, leek, turnip, onion, celery, 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.
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