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Spring Soup

A vegetable soup with celery, peas, asparagus, croutons, carrots, turnip, spring onions, cauliflower, cabbage lettuce, sorrel, chervil, tarragon, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By T. R. Allinson · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Spring Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and simmer

  1. Cut the carrots and turnip into small rounds.

  2. Add the carrots, turnip, chopped celery, whole onions, and cauliflower to a quart of water and bring to a boil.

  3. Simmer for 1/2 an hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Stamp the sorrel and lettuce into small round pieces, and add them with the leaves of chervil and tarragon to the soup, together with 1 teaspoonful of sugar.

  2. When all is quite tender, add the peas and asparagus points, freshly cooked.

  3. Serve with croutons.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

302Calories
14 gProtein
2 gFat
65 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 11 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pea1/2 cup (72g)62
Broccoli1 cup chopped (156g)55
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Turnip1 medium (122g)34
Asparagus6 spears (90g)27
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Waternot in our table0
Leafnot in our table0
Chervilnot 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 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.

  1. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Asparagus + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together328 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Peas + asparagustop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 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

What each ingredient does

Carrots
Hold their shape and add body and natural sweetness as they soften in the broth.
Peas
Add tender texture and fresh sweetness to the finished soup.
Asparagus points
Add tender texture and a fresh, green flavour.
Cauliflower
Adds mild body and texture as it cooks into the broth.

The step that matters

Add the peas and asparagus only when everything else is tender. Peas and asparagus cook quickly and turn dull and mushy if boiled along with the root vegetables. Adding them last, once freshly cooked, keeps their colour, texture and flavour bright.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, peas, asparagus, sugar, carrot, turnip, tea):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, peas, asparagus, sugar, carrot, turnip, tea. 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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