Skip to main content
Soup

PuKEE of Vegetable Soup

A soup of onions, turnips, carrot, potatoes, butter, ham and parsley, thickened with flour and milk, strained and served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

PuKEE of Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Combine onions, turnips, carrot, potatoes, butter, ham, and parsley in a stewpan.

  2. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.

  3. Stir in flour and mix well.

  4. Add broth and boiling milk.

  5. Bring to a boil while stirring.

  6. Season with salt and sugar.

  7. Strain through a fine sieve.

  8. Return to the stewpan. Boil again. Skim.

Serve

  1. Serve with croutons.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Starch that breaks down on cooking and thickens the purée, giving body.
Butter
Fat that carries flavour and gives the soup a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Flour
Starch that thickens the broth and milk so the soup holds together.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softness to the soup.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour and bringing to a boil. Flour must be mixed in thoroughly and the liquid brought to a boil while stirring so the starch hydrates evenly and thickens without lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turnip, carrot, potato, butter, ham, parsley, flour):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, carrot, potato, butter, ham, parsley, flour. 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.

You might also like

Indian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and SpinachIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and Spinach448 recipesCream of Potato SoupCream of Potato Soup38 recipesClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd SoupClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd Soup65 recipesMock Bisque SoupMock Bisque Soup51 recipes