Name: Spinach Soup
Ingredients: weak meat or bone stock; puree of spinach; cream

Why it works: Spinach and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,130 recipes. Both carry octanal, which smells fat, soap. The science ↓

Spinach Soup

Ingredients

weak meat or bone stock
puree of spinach
cream

Directions

Prepare a weak meat or bone stock.
Add a fine puree of spinach to the stock.
Pour the soup into a tureen and add some cream.

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.

Spinach + creamtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,130 recipes

Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Meat + spinachtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together263 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Meat + creamtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,248 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).