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Onion Soup

A savory soup made with beef stock, onions, butter, and Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Onion Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Remove grease from the beef stock and add salt, pepper, and the bay leaf.

Fry the onions

  1. In a skillet, fry the onions in butter until they are light brown.

  2. Before removing the onions from the skillet, sprinkle them generously with grated Parmesan cheese.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the fried onions to the boiling stock.

  2. Serve the soup with dry toast sprinkled with additional onion and cheese.

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.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Parmesan cheese + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 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

Beef stock
Forms the liquid base, carrying the flavor and moisture of the soup.
Onions
Browning in butter develops sweet, savory depth that defines the soup.
Butter
Fat for frying the onions, promoting even browning and rich flavor.
Parmesan cheese
Adds salty, savory flavor and browns on the onions for a toasted edge.

The step that matters

Frying the onions to light brown. Browning drives Maillard reactions and caramelization, which create sweet, savory flavors. Pale onions taste flat and bland, while over-dark onions turn bitter, so watch the color closely.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Tomatofits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, parmesan cheese, butter. 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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