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Cream of Carrot Soup

A creamy soup made from carrots, onions, rice, milk, and butter, seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Cream of Carrot Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the vegetables

  1. Cook the chopped carrots in 2 cups of water until tender.

  2. Press the cooked carrots through a sieve, reserving the cooking water.

Make the rice and seasoning base

  1. In a double boiler, cook the rice in the scalded milk.

  2. In a pan, cook the onion in butter or drippings, then add flour and seasonings.

Combine and serve

  1. Combine the carrot puree with the rice and milk mixture, then add the reserved cooking water.

  2. Bring to a boil, strain, and serve garnished with chopped parsley.

  3. If the soup is too thick, thin it with additional milk.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Carrots
Form the main bulk and natural sweetness of the puree.
Rice
Releases starch as it cooks, giving the soup body and thickness.
Milk
Adds creaminess, richness and a smooth, soft texture.
Butter
Carries flavor from the onion and adds richness to the base.
Flour
Its starch, cooked with fat, helps thicken the soup.

The step that matters

Cooking the rice in the scalded milk. Milk proteins and sugars scorch easily on direct heat. A double boiler keeps the heat gentle, so the rice softens and thickens the milk without sticking or burning.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, pepper, parsley, rice, milk, butter, flour):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, pepper, parsley, rice, milk, butter, flour. 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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