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Mixed Vegetable Soup

A soup made with carrots, turnip, parsnip, cabbage, celery, onions, and tomatoes, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Mixed Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the root vegetables

  1. In a pot, boil the carrot, turnip, and parsnip in just enough water to cover them for about 1 hour, until tender.

  2. Set the boiled vegetables aside to cool for 1.5 hours before dinner.

Make the soup

  1. In a soup kettle, combine the soup liquor, chopped cabbage, celery, and onions 1 hour before dinner.

  2. After 30 minutes, add the tomatoes, blended into a smooth sauce.

  3. Once the carrot, turnip, and parsnip are ready, add them along with the cooking water to the soup kettle.

  4. Season with salt and pepper as needed.

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.

  1. Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 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

Tomatoes
Add acidity and a smooth, thick base when blended into a sauce.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and body when cooked until tender.
Onions
Provide savory aroma and sweetness as they soften in the soup.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a tender texture after simmering.
Celery
Adds aroma and a soft, slightly crisp texture to the soup.
Turnip
Adds mild body and texture when cooked soft.

The step that matters

Adding the blended tomatoes after 30 minutes. Tomatoes are acidic, and adding them too early can slow the softening of some vegetables. Waiting until the other vegetables have started to cook lets them soften evenly, and blending the tomatoes gives the soup a smooth, even body.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, parsnip, cabbage, celery, onion, pepper):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, parsnip, cabbage, celery, onion, 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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