Name: Bread Soup
Ingredients: 1 stick of celery; 8 pints of water; 1/2 pint of milk; 4 onions; 2 turnips; pepper; salt; parsley; nutmeg

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Bread Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Soak the crusts in the water for 2 hours before they are put over the fire.
Cut up into small dice the vegetables; add them to the bread with the butter and pepper and salt to taste.

Simmer and finish

Allow all to simmer gently for 1 hour.
Rub the soup through a sieve, return it to the saucepan, add the milk and parsley, and, if the flavour is liked, a little grated nutmeg.
Boil the soup up and serve at once.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

252Calories

11 gProtein

9 gFat

34 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Turnip	1 medium (122g)	34
Nutmeg	1 tsp ground (2.2g)	12
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
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.

By T. R. Allinson. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,418 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,842 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,062 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

Bread crusts (in the method): Soak and break down to thicken the soup into a smooth body.
Onions: Add savoury sweetness and aroma as they soften during simmering.
Turnips: Add body and mild sweetness as they cook down into the broth.
Milk: Adds richness and a softer, creamier finish to the soup.

Swap the onion

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

Carrotfits better
Parsnipfits better
Leekfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, milk, turnip, pepper, parsley, 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.