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Vegetable Soup

A hearty vegetable soup made with carrots, turnip, potato, celery, onion, butter, water, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Vegetable Soup

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Wash and scrape the carrot, then cut it into quarters lengthwise and slice crosswise.

  2. Wash and pare the turnip, then cut it in the same manner as the carrot.

  3. Wash, pare, and dice the potatoes.

  4. Wash and scrape the celery, then cut it into ¼ inch pieces.

Cook the soup

  1. Mix the carrot, turnip, and celery, and cook in 4 tablespoons of butter for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

  2. Add the potatoes, cover, and cook for 2 minutes.

  3. Add 4 cups of water, bring to a boil, and then simmer for 1 hour.

  4. Beat the mixture with a fork or spoon to break up the vegetables.

Finish

  1. Finish with 1 tablespoon of butter, ½ tablespoon of parsley, and season with salt and pepper.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 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

Potato
Starch that softens during simmering and thickens the soup body.
Butter
Fat that cooks the vegetables gently and adds richness to the finished soup.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and body as it softens in the soup.
Celery
Adds aroma and a savory base flavor as it cooks in butter.
Turnip
Adds a mild, slightly peppery flavor and body to the soup.

The step that matters

Beat the mixture to break up the vegetables. Simmering softens the potato and root vegetables so they break apart easily. Beating them while still hot releases starch and body into the liquid, thickening the soup. Doing it too gently leaves it thin and chunky.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, potato, celery, butter, parsley, 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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