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Onion Soup

A creamy onion soup made with onions, butter, milk, cream, eggs, cornstarch, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Onion Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onions

  1. Cut six white onions fine, and fry in a spoonful of butter till a light brown.

Make the soup

  1. Add a quart of boiling water and one pint milk; season with 1 teaspoon salt, 1 saltspoon pepper, a pinch of mace and a teaspoon sugar.

  2. Boil very slowly for an hour and then strain.

Thicken and serve

  1. Beat 4 eggs to a foam, add one cup cream, and one tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in a little cold water.

  2. Boil up once and serve with croutons.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

885Calories
29 gProtein
32 gFat
120 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 10 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
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 Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

What each ingredient does

White onions
Softened and lightly browned in butter, they add sweetness and the base flavour of the soup.
Milk
Forms the liquid body of the soup and carries the seasonings.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, fuller mouthfeel.
Eggs
Beaten eggs set when heated, adding body and richness to the soup.
Cornstarch
Thickens the soup as its starch swells and gelatinises when boiled.

The step that matters

Boil up once after adding the egg and cornstarch mixture. Cornstarch needs to reach a boil to thicken fully, but egg proteins can scramble and curdle if the soup is overheated or boiled hard, so the heat must be brief and controlled.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cream, butter, onion, pepper, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cream, butter, onion, pepper, egg. 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.

More onion soup recipes

French 31Brown 15with Milk 7White 5Bavarian 4Bermuda 4 See all 236 →

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