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Vegetable Soup

A hearty vegetable soup with cabbage, potato, onion, tomatoes, celery, barley, sago, and egg noodles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Vegetable Soup

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Scrape the outside of the soup bone clean and cut the lean meat into 1-inch cubes.

  2. Place the bone and meat in a soup kettle with 2 quarts of cold water.

  3. Let it stand for 30 minutes on the back of the stove.

  4. Gradually heat to boiling, removing scum as it arises.

  5. Cover and cook slowly for 4 to 5 hours, keeping below boiling point.

  6. Remove from heat, drain the bone and meat, and let cool.

  7. Once cool, remove the fat from the top.

Add the vegetables

  1. Return the broth to the stove and add cabbage, potato, onion, tomatoes, celery leaves, barley, sago, and salt to taste.

  2. Boil for 1 hour.

Make the noodles and serve

  1. For the noodles, beat 1 unbeaten egg with flour, adding salt and baking powder.

  2. Add enough flour to make a stiff batter.

  3. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the boiling soup and cook until done.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  4. Potato + barleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Soup bone
Releases flavor and gelatin into the broth during the long, slow simmer.
Lean meat
Adds savory meat flavor to the broth and becomes tender during slow cooking.
Potato
Thickens the broth slightly as it cooks and adds starchy body.
Egg
Binds the noodle batter so the dumplings hold their shape in the soup.
Tomatoes
Adds acidity and brightness to the broth.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and mild sweetness as it softens in the broth.

The step that matters

Keeping the broth below a boil during the 4 to 5 hour simmer. Gentle heat lets collagen and flavor leach out slowly while keeping the broth clear. A hard boil makes it cloudy and can toughen the meat.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, potato, onion, tomato, celery, barley, egg):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, potato, onion, tomato, celery, barley, egg. 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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