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Soup

Soup Powder

A dry blend of herbs and spices used to season soups and gravies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Soup Powder

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dry all herbs and ingredients.

  2. Pound them into a fine powder.

  3. Sift the mixture to remove any larger pieces.

Store and use

  1. Bottle the powder tightly for storage.

  2. To use, add to soups or gravies as needed.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together214 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Marjoram + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together125 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Basil + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  5. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Thyme
Provides the main savory herbal aroma that flavours the soup powder.
Basil
Adds a sweet, aromatic herbal flavour to the blend.
Sweet marjoram
Contributes a warm, floral herbal aroma to the blend.
Summer savory
Adds a peppery, aromatic herbal note to the blend.
Dried lemon peel
Adds bright citrus aroma that lifts the savory herbs.

The step that matters

Sift the mixture. Sifting removes larger pieces so the powder blends evenly into liquids and does not leave gritty bits in soups or gravies. Fine, uniform particles also dissolve and disperse more consistently, giving an even flavour throughout the dish.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (thyme, basil, marjoram, summer savory, lemon, celery, parsley):

  1. Sagefits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against thyme, basil, marjoram, summer savory, lemon, celery, parsley. 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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