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Spinach

A spinach and vegetable soup thickened with flour and milk, served with fried bread cubes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Spinach and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 427 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Spinach

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Wash the spinach in several waters, turning it with your hands to remove grit.

  2. Wash and shred all the vegetables.

  3. Gently fry the vegetables in butter for 15 minutes without browning.

  4. Add 1 pint of cold water to the fried vegetables and simmer until soft.

Make the soup

  1. Mix the flour with a little milk.

  2. Heat the remaining milk in a saucepan.

  3. Stir in the flour mixture until it boils.

  4. Cook gently for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  5. Press the cooked vegetables through a fine sieve.

  6. Add the hot milk to the vegetable pulp and mix smoothly.

  7. Season to taste.

  8. Reheat without boiling.

  9. Serve with fried bread cubes alongside the soup.

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. Spinach + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together427 recipes

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

  2. Turnip + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Spinach + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together320 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Spinach
Forms the bulk of the soup and gives it its green colour and flavour.
Butter
Fat that softens the vegetables gently and carries flavour during frying.
Flour
Thickens the soup into a smooth, body-rich texture as it cooks.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softness, rounding out the vegetable flavour.
Onions
Build a savoury, sweet base flavour when softened in butter.

The step that matters

Fry the vegetables without browning. Gentle frying softens the vegetables and builds flavour without caramelising them. Browning would make the soup taste bitter and darken its pale green colour.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spinach, butter, turnip, parsley, celery, lettuce, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against spinach, butter, turnip, parsley, celery, lettuce, 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.

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