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Cream of Carrot Soup

A warm soup made from grated carrots, water, onion, bay leaf, milk, cornstarch, salt, white pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cream of Carrot Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, cover the grated carrots with 1 pint of water.

  2. Add the onion slice and bay leaf, then cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes.

  3. Remove the onion and bay leaf, then add 1 quart of milk.

  4. Moisten the cornstarch in a little cold milk, then add it to the soup and stir until thick.

  5. Season with salt and white pepper.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, stir in 2 tablespoons of butter.

  2. Serve the soup immediately.

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 + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Carrot + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + milktop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Carrots
Provide the main body, sweetness and earthy flavor of the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a rich, smooth body to the soup.
Cornstarch
Thickens the soup as it heats, giving it a silky, cohesive texture.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth mouthfeel and rich flavor at the end.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cornstarch. Cornstarch must be moistened in cold milk first, then stirred into hot liquid and brought to a simmer. Added dry or unstirred, it clumps, and it only thickens fully once heated, so the soup stays lumpy or thin if rushed.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, onion, milk, butter):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, onion, milk, butter. 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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