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Hodge-podge Soup

A hearty mutton soup with carrots, turnips, onions, cabbage, and optional peas and grated carrot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 526 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Hodge-podge Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine mutton, cold water, salt, sugar, and pepper in a stewpan.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour, skimming as needed.

Add vegetables and serve

  1. Wash and chop the carrot, turnips, onions, and cabbage lettuces, then add to the pot.

  2. Simmer until all vegetables are tender.

  3. If using, add green peas and grated carrot before serving.

  4. Serve the meat alongside the soup.

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. Turnip + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  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. Cabbage + lettucetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together622 recipes

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

  5. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 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

Mutton
Provides rich meat flavor and gelatin that gives the broth body as it simmers.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and soft texture as they cook down into the broth.
Cabbage lettuces
Contribute bulk and tender leafy texture while adding a gentle vegetal flavor.
Onions
Build savory depth as their sugars soften and mellow during simmering.

The step that matters

Skimming during the first simmer. Foam and fat rise to the surface as the meat simmers. Removing them keeps the broth clear and prevents a greasy or muddy flavor.

Swap the carrot

The recipe marks carrot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, sugar, pepper, turnip, onion, cabbage, lettuce):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, sugar, pepper, turnip, onion, cabbage, lettuce. 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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