Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Put the potatoes, onion, and bread into a quart of water.
Boil down to 1 pint.
Add chopped celery or parsley and salt.
Cover, remove from heat, and allow to cool.
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.
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Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,023 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,047 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,676 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Potato + breadtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together434 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Starch that softens and breaks down into the broth, giving it body.
- Onion
- Adds savory aroma and mild sweetness as it cooks into the broth.
- Bread
- Softens and breaks down in the liquid, adding body and a slight thickness.
The step that matters
Boil down to 1 pint. Reducing concentrates the flavor and thickens the broth as water evaporates. Stopping at the right volume matters, because too little reduction leaves the soup thin and too much makes it over-salted and pasty.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, bread):
- Garlicfits better
- Thymefits about as well
- Parsleyfits about as well
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, bread. 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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