Why it works: Pepper and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,379 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Creole Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Brown 2 tablespoons each of chopped peppers and onions in 1 tablespoon butter.
Add 1 can tomatoes and 1 quart brown stock; simmer 20 minutes.
Put a little grated horseradish at the bottom of a tureen with 1 teaspoon vinegar, and some boiled macaroni cut into small pieces.
Thicken the soup with a little butter and flour rubbed together, adding it very carefully, and pour into the tureen.
Make the soup
Slice a small variety of soup vegetables and herbs.
Brown them in a saucepan with 1 tablespoon butter.
Add 5 pints hot water, season to taste, and put in a little chopped salt pork and whatever beef or chicken bones are at hand.
Cover and simmer 30 minutes, skimming every 10 minutes.
Add 4 tablespoons raw rice and half as much chopped spaghetti.
Cover again and boil 40 minutes.
Take out the bones and pork, skim, and serve with toast.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Rice | 1 cup cooked (158g) white | 206 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Vinegar | 1 tbsp (15ml) distilled | 3 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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.
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.
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Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,379 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Butter + ricetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,513 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Browns the vegetables and, with flour, forms a light thickening for the soup.
- Raw rice
- Softens as it cooks and adds body and starch to the soup.
- Brown stock
- Provides the main savory liquid and beefy flavor of the soup.
- Flour (in the method)
- Thickens the soup when rubbed with butter and stirred in carefully.
The step that matters
Adding the butter and flour thickening. Flour clumps if dropped in raw or added too fast; rubbing it with butter first and adding it gradually lets it disperse and thicken the liquid smoothly without lumps.
“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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