Skip to main content

Hotch Potch

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Hotch Potch

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Soak the blue peas overnight.

  2. Peel, clean, and cut the vegetables and onions into small square pieces.

  3. Scald the barley by pouring boiling water over it, let it stand for a few minutes, then discard the water.

  4. Clean and cut the lettuce or cabbage into small pieces.

  5. In a boiler, combine stock, peas, barley, vegetables, onions, parsley, cabbage, and herbs.

  6. Bring to a simmer and cook until the peas and barley are tender.

  7. Make the thickening by mixing flour, pepper, and salt with a little cold water.

  8. Bring the soup to a boil, add the thickening, and stir until it boils again.

  9. Add the celery seed and simmer for about 30 minutes.

  10. Remove from heat and let it sit until ready to serve.

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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Lettuce + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,033 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, barley, lettuce, parsley, flour, pepper, celery):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, barley, lettuce, parsley, flour, pepper, celery. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

You might also like

Green PeasGreen Peas229 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesGreen Peas SoupGreen Peas Soup35 recipesCelery StewCelery Stew25 recipes