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Vegetable Soup

A broth made from shin bone, celery, onion, parsley, tomato, rice, green beans, and peas simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Vegetable Soup

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the shin bone in a pot and cover with water.

  2. Add the celery, onion, and parsley.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Reduce to a simmer for 2 hours.

Add the vegetables and serve

  1. One hour before serving, add the tomato, rice, green beans, and peas.

  2. Continue to simmer until the vegetables are tender.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Green beans + peastop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together54 recipes

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

  3. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + green beanstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together113 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin bone
Releases flavor and body into the broth during long simmering.
Rice
Absorbs liquid and thickens the soup as it cooks.
Green beans
Add texture and a fresh, tender bite to the soup.
Peas
Add sweetness and soft texture to the soup.

The step that matters

Simmering the rice and vegetables after adding them. Adding the rice, green beans, and peas only one hour before serving keeps them from overcooking and turning mushy during the long simmer, while still letting them become tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, parsley, tomato, rice, green beans, peas):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, parsley, tomato, rice, green beans, peas. 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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