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Soup

Salsify Soup

A soup made from salsify simmered in water, then blended with butter, scalded milk, cayenne pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salsify Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salsify

  1. Wash the salsify with a brush.

  2. Cook the salsify in boiling water until tender, about 30 minutes to 2 hours.

  3. Reserve the cooking liquid.

  4. Remove the skin and cut the salsify into ½‑inch pieces.

Make the soup

  1. Reheat the reserved stock.

  2. Add the cayenne, butter, scalded milk, and salt to the stock, then 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Salsify
Provides the main body and flavour of the soup once cooked and cut into pieces.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the soup's flavour.

The step that matters

Cook the salsify until tender. Salsify must be cooked through to become soft and easy to purée or eat. The time range is wide, so checking for tenderness with a knife or fork matters more than the clock.

“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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