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Cracker Soup

A soup made with powdered crackers, milk, onion, butter, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cracker Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Scald and combine

  1. Scald milk and onion in a double boiler.

  2. Stir boiling water into the powdered crackers. Boil for two minutes.

  3. Remove the onion. Add the milk to the crackers and water.

Cook and serve

  1. Return to the double boiler and cook for ten minutes.

  2. Add butter and salt, then serve hot.

  3. If the soup is too thick, add more milk.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Milk + oniontop 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

Powdered crackers
Starch in the crackers swells as it absorbs liquid, thickening the soup and giving it body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base, adding creaminess and a soft, rich texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel and flavor.
Onion
Infuses the milk with a mild aroma while it scalds, then is removed.

The step that matters

Return to the double boiler and cook for ten minutes. Gentle, indirect heat keeps the milk from scorching or boiling over while the cracker starch swells and thickens the soup evenly.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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