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Vegetable Soup

A hearty soup made with beef stock, barley, carrots, celery, onions, potatoes, turnip, and spices, simmered and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Tracy, Suzanne. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 24 ingredients
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Vegetable Soup

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a large pot combine two quarts of beef stock, one-fourth cupful of barley, one quart of water, one quart of chicken or veal stock, one quart of beef stock, seven consomme, two tablespoonfuls of minced stock, and one cupful of cold water.

  2. Add the vegetables: one carrot, one onion, one-half medium-sized yellow two potatoes, small turnip, two stalks of celery, two cupfuls of carrots, parsnips, four cloves, one inch piece of mace, one-half bay leaf, four pepper corns, one sprig of parsley, and one small stalk of celery.

  3. Cut the vegetables finely except the potatoes.

  4. Cook gently for one hour, or until the vegetables are almost tender.

  5. Add the potatoes and cook fifteen minutes; season with salt and pepper.

  6. Brown the vegetables in bacon fat, taking care not to let them burn.

  7. Add the spices, including cinnamon, to the stock and cook slowly for one and one-half hours.

Clarify and serve

  1. Strain and remove the fat.

  2. Break the whites and shells of the eggs into one cupful of cold water and mix thoroughly; add to the soup and let come to the boiling point.

  3. Add lemon, salt and pepper; cook slowly twenty minutes.

  4. Strain through a strainer cloth wet in cold water; reheat the soup.

  5. Garnish each plate with a thin slice of lemon and three allspice berries; serve very hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1020Calories
77 gProtein
27 gFat
121 gCarbs

Counts 15 of 17 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 15 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Barley1 cup cooked (157g)193
Chicken100g cooked165
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Corn1/2 cup kernels (82g)77
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Tracy, Suzanne. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  5. Beef + chickentop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites and shells bind particles and clarify the soup as they coagulate when heated.
Barley
Adds body and a soft, thickened texture to the broth as it cooks.
Beef stock
Forms the savory base that carries the flavor of the whole soup.
Carrots
Contribute sweetness and color to the broth as they soften during gentle cooking.
Potatoes
Add starch that softens the soup and gives it a fuller body.

The step that matters

Let the egg clarification come to the boiling point, then cook gently. Egg whites must be mixed in fully and heated slowly so they coagulate and trap impurities. Boiling hard breaks up the raft, leaving the soup cloudy.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, barley, celery, chicken, carrot, onion, potato):

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Cuminfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, barley, celery, chicken, carrot, onion, potato. 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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