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Oatmeal Soup

A thickened soup made with meat broth, tomatoes, onion, celery, oatmeal, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Oatmeal Soup

Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Oatmeal Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Combine broth, tomatoes, onion, celery, salt, and pepper in a pot.

  2. Bring to a boil over medium heat.

  3. Stir in the oatmeal until smooth.

  4. Boil until thickened, about the consistency of cream.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain through a colander and serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  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

Oatmeal
Starch that swells in the hot broth and thickens the soup to a creamy body.
Meat broth
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the soup.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body to the broth, balancing the savory flavor.
Onion
Adds savory aromatic flavor as it softens in the broth.
Celery
Adds a mild, herbal aroma and subtle savory flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Boil until thickened. Oatmeal starch needs sustained heat to swell and gelatinize fully. Stopping too early leaves a thin, grainy soup, while over-boiling can make it gluey and too thick.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, tomato, onion, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Cuminfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, tomato, onion, 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.