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Soup

Vegetable Soup

A simple soup made with stock, water, onions, carrots, turnips, cabbage, tomato, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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

  1. In a pot, combine the stock and boiling water.

  2. Add the chopped onion, carrot, turnip, and cabbage.

  3. Cook the vegetables in the stock until tender. Alternatively, cook the vegetables in boiling salted water first, then add them to the stock.

  4. Stir in the strained tomato, parsley, 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 + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  5. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the soup.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens in the broth.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and firm texture after simmering until tender.
Cabbage
Adds body and a mild sweetness as it cooks until tender.
Strained tomato
Adds acidity and color, giving the broth a richer flavor.

The step that matters

Cooking the vegetables until tender. Vegetables cooked in the stock need enough time for starches and fibers to soften, so they become tender without turning mushy. Adding the tomato after the vegetables are cooked keeps its bright flavor fresh.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, carrot, turnip, cabbage, parsley, pepper):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, turnip, cabbage, 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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