Skip to main content

Soup Making

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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 ↓

Soup Making

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Chop the bones into small pieces and cut the meat into small chunks.

  2. In a dedicated kettle, add all bits of meat and bones as they accumulate.

  3. Cover the meat with cold soft water and let it sit for a few hours.

  4. Heat the kettle gradually and keep it simmering for at least two hours.

  5. An hour before serving, add onions, carrots, celery, summer savory, and parsley.

  6. Add salt and pepper just before serving.

  7. Strain the soup and skim off all fat before serving.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Summer savory + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, beef, carrot, celery, summer savory, parsley, pepper):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, beef, carrot, celery, summer savory, parsley, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

More beef broth recipes

You might also like