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Vegetable Soup

A hearty bean and vegetable soup with ham, tomatoes, corn, snap beans, okra, and egg yolk thickening.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Vegetable Soup

Why it works: Lima beans and beans match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 156 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a large pot, combine the Lima beans, tomatoes, dried corn, snap beans, dried okra, and water.

  2. Add the slices of ham and bring to a boil.

  3. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours.

Season and finish

  1. Season with salt and pepper.

  2. Remove the ham before serving.

  3. To thicken, mix the egg yolk with a little flour and stir into the soup.

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. Lima beans + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together156 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Beans + okratop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together66 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Tomato + beanstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,713 recipes

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

  4. Lima beans + okratop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together64 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Corn + beanstop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,211 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Lima beans
Provide starchy body and substance to the soup as they simmer.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and liquid, breaking down to flavor and color the broth.
Dried corn
Adds sweetness and bulk to the soup.
Egg yolk
Thickens the soup slightly when stirred in with flour.
Flour
Helps the egg yolk thicken the soup smoothly without curdling.
Ham
Contributes savory, smoky flavor to the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolk into the soup. Egg yolk can curdle or scramble if it meets hot liquid directly. Mixing it with flour first and stirring it in gradually helps it thicken the soup smoothly.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lima beans, corn, beans, okra, ham, pepper, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lima beans, corn, beans, okra, ham, pepper, 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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