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Vegetable Soup

A soup made with mixed vegetables, haricot beans, butter, salt, peppercorns, sugar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Vegetable Soup

Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the mixed vegetables.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the sliced vegetables, haricot beans, and butter.

  3. Stir until the butter is absorbed.

  4. Sprinkle salt and sugar over the mixture.

  5. Add peppercorns and water.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil until the vegetables are very soft.

  2. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

  3. Return to the saucepan and heat until hot.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 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

Mixed vegetables
Provide the main body, flavor, and bulk of the soup once cooked and sieved.
Haricot beans
Add body and starch, helping the soup thicken when rubbed through a sieve.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor and giving the soup a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boil until the vegetables are very soft. Vegetables must be fully softened so they break down easily when rubbed through a sieve. Undercooked pieces stay fibrous and leave a grainy, less smooth texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, leek, celery, butter, beans, sugar):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, leek, celery, butter, beans, sugar. 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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