Name: Noodle Soup
Ingredients: one quart of tomatoes; three tablespoonfuls flour mixed; one potato; one onion; ten cloves; cloves; salt; pepper

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 ↓

Noodle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Use same stock as for any other soup, and drop in noodles slowly, and let cook five or ten minutes. Season with onion if preferred.
Mrs. G. L. S. DELMONICO SOUP.
Boil a soup bone until thoroughly done, when cool skim off the grease. The next day add to this stock one potato, one quart of tomatoes, one onion, a few stalks of celery, eight or ten cloves, salt and pepper (red preferred). Let it cook until the vegetables are done. Just before taking from the fire add three tablespoonfuls flour mixed with a little cold water, let it boil to cook the flour, then strain through a coarse sieve. When served put a tablespoonful Worcester- shire sauce in the tureen. Mrs. T. C. D.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

695Calories

20 gProtein

2 gFat

150 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 7 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

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

By Towanda, Pa. Christ church. Young ladies society. [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.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, flour, potato, onion, pepper):

Garlicfits better
Thymefits better
Cuminfits better
Clovethe original

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