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Rhubarb Soup

A soup made with young rhubarb, stock, onion, bread, salt, and pepper, simmered until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Rhubarb Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and cut the rhubarb into short lengths.

  2. Add the rhubarb to the stock along with the onion, bread, salt, and pepper.

Cook and serve

  1. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises.

  2. Simmer gently for about 30 minutes until the rhubarb is tender.

  3. Strain the soup and serve with toasted bread pieces.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Rhubarb + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together96 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Rhubarb + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together100 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Onion + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

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

  5. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Provides the tart, acidic flavour that defines the soup and softens as it simmers.
Stock
Forms the liquid base and carries the flavour of the soup.
Bread
Adds body and thickens the soup slightly as it cooks.
Onion
Contributes savoury aromatic depth to the stock.

The step that matters

Skimming the boil. Scum rising during the initial boil contains impurities that cloud the broth and spoil its flavour, so it should be removed as it forms.

Swap the rhubarb

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, onion, bread, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Rhubarbthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, bread, 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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