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Vegetarian Cookery

A soup made from young turnips simmered in butter and milk, seasoned with salt and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Payne, A. G. (Arthur Gay), 1840-1894 · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and turnip are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,418 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Vegetarian Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turnips

  1. Cut up some young turnips into small pieces.

  2. Throw them into boiling water and let them boil for a few minutes.

  3. Take them out and strain them.

Stew and finish

  1. Put them into a stew-pan with about two ounces of fresh butter.

  2. Add a little salt and sugar.

  3. Let them stew in the butter, taking great care that they don't turn colour, until they become soft.

  4. Add sufficient boiling milk to moisten them, so that when rubbed through a wire sieve the soup will be of the consistency of pea soup.

  5. Serve fried or toasted bread with the soup.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

309Calories
10 gProtein
21 gFat
24 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Turnip1 medium (122g)34
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Soupnot 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 Payne, A. G. (Arthur Gay), 1840-1894. 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. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Celery + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,331 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Turnips
Form the body of the soup once softened and rubbed through a sieve.
Butter
Cooks the turnips gently in fat, adding richness and a smooth texture.
Milk
Moistens the softened turnips so they can be sieved to a soup consistency.

The step that matters

Stewing the turnips in butter. If the heat is too high, the turnips brown or discolour and can taste bitter or scorched. Gentle stewing softens them evenly while keeping the colour pale.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, celery, milk, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, celery, milk, pepper, nutmeg. 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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