Why it works: Rice and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
Cheap Onion Soup
8 personsIngredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the onions small.
Put them in the stewpan with the butter and fry them well.
Mix the rice flour smoothly with the water.
Make the soup
Add the onions, seasoning, and sugar.
Simmer for 2 hours until tender.
Thicken with butter and flour. Serve.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| 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.
-
Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,379 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,611 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Onions
- Soften and turn sweet as they fry and simmer, giving the soup its main flavour.
- Rice-flour
- Starch thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the soup body.
- Water
- Forms the liquid base in which the onions and flour cook.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds a little sweetness that rounds out the savoury onion flavour.
The step that matters
Mix the rice flour smoothly with the water.. Flour added dry clumps when it meets hot liquid, because the outer starch swells before the inside can wet. Mixing it into cold water first disperses the starch so the soup thickens evenly without lumps.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, rice, flour, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Okrafits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, rice, flour, pepper. 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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