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Miso Soup

A light soup made with miso, water, optional green onions, tofu, mushrooms, shrimp, and seaweed.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Miso and seaweed work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 18 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl decanoate, which smells grape, waxy. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: soy, shellfish, sesame (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Heat sesame oil in a small pot.

  2. Add green onions.

  3. Cook for a few minutes while stirring frequently.

  4. Add 2 ½ cups of water.

  5. Bring to a boil.

Finish the soup

  1. Dissolve miso in the remaining ½ cup of water.

  2. Add the dissolved miso to the pot.

  3. Lower the heat.

  4. Add mushrooms, seaweed, and tofu, if desired.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Miso + seaweedtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together18 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).

  2. Sesame + tofutop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together250 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Miso + tofutop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together75 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Sesame + misotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together121 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Sesame + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Miso
Provides salty, savoury depth and flavour to the broth.
Tofu
Adds soft texture and absorbs the surrounding broth flavour.
Mushrooms
Add savoury, earthy flavour and a tender chew to the soup.

The step that matters

Dissolve miso in water before adding it to the pot. Miso paste clumps when added straight to hot liquid. Dissolving it first in a little water spreads it evenly, so the broth tastes uniform. Keeping the soup just below a boil after adding miso helps preserve its delicate aroma.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sesame, miso, tofu, mushroom, shrimp, seaweed):

  1. Welsh onionbetter flavor fit
  2. Spinachabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Capsicumabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against sesame, miso, tofu, mushroom, shrimp, seaweed. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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