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Soups and Broths

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Soups and Broths

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Add salt after adding catsup and check if more is needed.

  2. If the soup reduces too much, add boiling water.

  3. Keep the lid on the pot to retain flavor; only remove it when necessary.

  4. If the soup is too watery, leave the lid half off to allow some steam to escape.

  5. For thickening, use bread crumbs or biscuit crumbs.

  6. To thicken with flour, rub it into butter or fat skimmings.

  7. To color flour or meal, spread it on a plate and heat it in a dutch oven, stirring until desired color is achieved.

  8. Mix 1 tablespoon of potato flour with 1 cup of water for a nice thickness.

  9. You can also use barley, oatmeal, or cornmeal in the same quantity for thickening.

  10. Brown the meat, onions, and carrots in a stew-pan with butter until browned, turning often to avoid burning.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, flour, butter, potato, meat, onion):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, flour, butter, potato, meat, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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