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Alexandra Soup

A hearty soup made with barley, lentils, tomato pulp, onions, and fat, simmered and then sieved for a smooth texture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Barley and lentils share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 57 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Alexandra Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the lentils and barley thoroughly.

Make the soup

  1. In a pan, combine the lentils, barley, water, fat, and chopped onions.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1½ hours.

  3. Add the tomato pulp and cook for an additional 20 minutes.

  4. Rub the mixture through a sieve to achieve a smooth consistency.

  5. Reheat the soup, season with salt and pepper, and add milk if desired.

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. Barley + lentilstop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together57 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Lentils + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together463 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Lentils + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,221 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Barley
Adds body and a soft, thickening texture as it simmers.
Lentils
Add body and protein-rich thickness, helping the soup become substantial and creamy when sieved.
Tomato pulp
Provides the main flavour base, along with acidity and colour.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aroma as they cook down into the base.

The step that matters

Simmering the barley and lentils. Barley and lentils must cook long enough to soften fully before sieving; undercooked grains stay firm and grainy, so the smooth texture the sieve is meant to produce will not be achieved.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, lentils, tomato, milk, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, lentils, tomato, milk, pepper. 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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