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Oatmeal Soup

A savory soup made with butter, onions, oatmeal, milk, bay leaf, cloves, salt, pepper, and an egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Oatmeal Soup

Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Oatmeal Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Melt the butter in a pot.

  2. Add the chopped onions and cook until soft and slightly browned.

  3. Stir in the cooked oatmeal, milk, bay leaf, and cloves; bring to a boil.

  4. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

  5. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve

  1. Pour the hot soup over the beaten egg yolk in a tureen.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked oatmeal
Thickens the milk into a body-rich, creamy soup as it simmers.
Milk
Forms the liquid base and adds richness and softness to the soup.
Egg
Enriches and thickens the soup when the hot liquid is poured over it.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth after softening and browning in butter.

The step that matters

Pour the hot soup over the beaten egg yolk. Adding hot liquid to egg too quickly can scramble it. Pouring gradually while whisking the egg tempers it, so the soup stays smooth and thickened.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, milk, clove, pepper, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, milk, clove, pepper, egg. 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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