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Vegetable Soup

A hearty soup made with meat, bones, tomatoes, beans, hominy, vegetables, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Vegetable Soup

Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the stock

  1. Wash the meat and bones, then place them in a large pot with cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 4 hours.

  3. Soak the beans and hominy overnight.

Finish the soup

  1. The next morning, at 8 A.M., add the minced vegetables, seasonings, and water to the stock.

  2. Boil gently until 11:40 A.M.

  3. Cook the onions with cloves and remove them before serving.

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.

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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Meat and bones
Give the stock body, richness and savory flavor as they simmer.
Beans
Add substance and creamy texture as they soften in the broth.
Hominy
Adds chewy texture and body to the soup as it cooks.
Tomato puree
Adds acidity, color and savory depth to the broth.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body as they cook down in the soup.

The step that matters

Boil gently until the vegetables are done. A hard boil breaks vegetables apart and clouds the broth, while gentle simmering keeps pieces intact and the soup clear.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, tomato, beans, turnip, celery, carrot, onion):

  1. Okrafits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, tomato, beans, turnip, celery, carrot, onion. 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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