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Two Salsify Soups

A soup made from sliced salsify, onion, water, milk, butter, flour, salt, white pepper, and optionally eggs and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Two Salsify Soups

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Scrape 10 or 12 roots of salsify, throwing each one at a time into cold water. Then cut into very thin slices, and cover with a quart of cold water, add 1 bay leaf and 1 slice of onion, cover and cook for thirty minutes.

  2. Add 1 pint of milk and 1 tablespoon of butter rubbed with 1 tablespoon of flour; stir carefully until boiling; add 1 level teaspoon of salt and 1 saltspoon of white pepper.

  3. Beat the yolks of 1 or 2 eggs with a cup of cream and add at the last moment.

  4. (Optional) Press the salsify through a sieve, or grate it before cooking.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

283Calories
8 gProtein
23 gFat
13 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 9 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Salsifynot 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 Warren, Pa. Presbyterian church. Second auxiliary missionary 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.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. White pepper + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,312 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

Onion and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 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

Salsify
Forms the main body of the soup and gives its flavour.
Eggs
Yolks enrich the soup and thicken it slightly when added at the end.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and with flour helps thicken the soup.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the soup when cooked with butter into a roux.

The step that matters

Adding the egg and cream mixture. Egg yolks can curdle if they get too hot. Add them off the heat or at the last moment, and stir gently, so the soup stays smooth and thick.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

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

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