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Vegetable Porridge

A thick soup made by simmering celery, carrots, turnips, onions, parsnips, parsley, chervil, and thyme in butter and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Charles Elme Francatelli · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Vegetable Porridge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Scrape and peel six carrots, six turnips, six onions, three heads of celery, and three parsnips.

  2. Slice all these vegetables very thinly.

Simmer

  1. Put the sliced vegetables into a two-gallon pot with four ounces of butter, a handful of parsley, a handful of chervil, and a good sprig of thyme.

  2. Fill the pot with water or pot liquor, if available.

  3. Season with pepper and salt.

  4. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil on the fire for two hours.

  5. After two hours, the vegetables will be done to a pulp.

Strain and serve

  1. Rub the mixture through a colander with a wooden spoon.

  2. Return the mixture to the pot and stir over the fire to heat it for dinner.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

277Calories
5 gProtein
12 gFat
41 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Parsnip1/2 cup (78g)55
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Turnip1 medium (122g)34
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Charles Elme Francatelli. 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. Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Carrots
Sweetness and body as they soften and break down into the broth.
Turnips
Adds mild earthy flavour and bulk as they cook down to a pulp.
Onions
Build savoury depth and sweetness during the long, gentle simmer.
Celery
Contributes aromatic flavour and body once cooked down.
Parsnips
Add natural sweetness and thickening body when cooked to a pulp.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished porridge.

The step that matters

Holding a gentle boil for two hours. A gentle simmer lets the vegetables soften fully so they break down into a pulp, while a hard boil or too little liquid can scorch the bottom of the pot and leave the mixture uneven.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, butter, parsley, thyme, carrot, turnip, parsnip):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, butter, parsley, thyme, carrot, turnip, parsnip. 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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