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Soup, Oatmeal

A soup made with cold cooked oatmeal, water, celery, bay leaf, salt, optional beef extract, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,759 recipes. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Soup, Oatmeal

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Combine the cold cooked oatmeal and water in a pot.

  2. Add the chopped celery, bay leaf, and salt.

  3. Cover and boil slowly for 15 minutes.

  4. If using, add the beef extract or stock instead of water.

  5. Press the mixture through a sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the strained soup to the pot.

  2. Add the milk.

  3. Reheat gently.

  4. Serve.

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. Beef + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,759 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  2. Celery + beeftop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Celery + milktop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked oatmeal
Forms the base of the soup and thickens it as it simmers.
Celery
Adds a savory, vegetal aroma to the broth.
Milk
Adds richness and a creamy texture when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Press the mixture through a sieve. Pressing the cooked oatmeal and celery through a sieve breaks down solids and yields a smooth, even texture. Skipping or rushing this step leaves a grainy, lumpy soup.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Pepperfits better
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, milk. 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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