Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 8,002 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Tomato Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Boil the shin of veal in water for three hours, or heat the soup stock.
Add the chopped onions, carrots, turnips, pepper, salt, and chopped tomatoes.
Boil for two hours, then strain the mixture through a sieve.
Serve
Toast the bread until light brown, then cut it into dice.
Serve the soup over the toast just before serving to prevent sogginess.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together7,585 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,606 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together21,601 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
- Tomatoes
- Provide the main body, acidity and flavour of the soup.
- Veal shin or soup stock
- Provides the liquid base and savoury depth for the soup.
- Onions
- Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they cook down.
- Carrots
- Add natural sweetness and body to the soup.
- Turnips
- Add mild sweetness and body as they soften in the broth.
The step that matters
Serve the soup over the toast just before serving. Bread soaks up liquid quickly and turns soggy, so it should be added only at the last moment to keep its texture.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, carrot, turnip, tomato, pepper, bread):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Parsnipbetter flavor fit
- Leekbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, carrot, turnip, tomato, pepper, bread. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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