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French Soup

A simple soup of onion, toast, milk, water, cheese, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By T. R. Allinson · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and 68,474 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

French Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the onion finely.

  2. Shred 1 oz. of cheese finely.

  3. Break up the slice of dry toast.

Cook

  1. Combine the toast, onion, cheese, 3/4 pint of water, a little milk, pepper, and salt to taste.

  2. Set all the ingredients over the fire.

  3. Cook until the onion is tender.

  4. Add 1/2 gill of milk.

  5. Serve.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Milk + oniontop 20% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together13,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  3. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Dry toast
Thickens the soup and gives it body as it soaks up liquid.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savoury flavour as it softens during cooking.
Cheese (in the method)
Adds richness and flavour and becomes creamy when melted into the hot liquid.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the flavour of the soup.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

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

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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