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Some Cheap Soups

A collection of inexpensive soups made with common ingredients such as butter, milk, celery, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Some Cheap Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Tomato soup

  1. Turn a can of tomatoes into a stew-pan and let come to a boil.

  2. Fry some bread in dice, place them at the bottom of a soup tureen.

  3. Rub the tomatoes through a colander over the bread.

  4. Put the pulp left in the colander back into the stewpan.

  5. Add water, let it boil up, and strain again into the tureen.

  6. Stir in a teaspoonful of butter, season with pepper and salt, and serve.

Carrot soup

  1. Boil half a dozen large carrots until quite tender.

  2. Rub them through a colander into a saucepan.

  3. Add a pint and a half of water to the pulp, and boil.

  4. Thicken with a little flour.

  5. Add a teaspoonful of butter, pepper and salt.

Potato soup

  1. Boil half a dozen large potatoes.

  2. Rub them through a sieve into a saucepan that contains shredded onion, chopped parsley, and about a cupful of milk.

  3. Stir in the potato pulp, and thin with water.

  4. Season with pepper and salt.

Bean and celery soups

  1. Soak some beans overnight.

  2. Boil for one hour.

  3. Add an onion when nearly soft.

  4. Rub them through a colander into a tureen that already contains some onions fried in butter or lard.

  5. Add water if too thick.

  6. Take the cast-off leaves and hard ends of a bunch of celery.

  7. Let them boil until perfectly shredded.

  8. Strain the water into some thickened milk.

  9. Let it all come to the boiling point, but not boil.

  10. Season with butter, pepper and salt.

  11. Break an egg into the tureen and pour the soup upon it.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

263Calories
9 gProtein
20 gFat
15 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
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 Mary Ronald. 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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + celerytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded flavour at the end of cooking.
Milk
Adds creaminess and body, and thickens the soup when heated gently.
Celery
Adds a fresh, savoury aroma and flavour as it simmers.

The step that matters

Let it all come to the boiling point, but not boil.. Milk proteins can scorch on the base of the pan or curdle when boiled hard. Heating the thickened milk until it is just about to boil keeps the soup smooth.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, 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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