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Puree of Vegetable Soup

A pureed vegetable soup made with onion, carrot, potato, tomato, rice, butter, corn starch, milk, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓

Puree of Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice the potatoes and onion.

  2. In a frying pan, melt the butter and fry the onion until golden brown.

  3. Transfer the onion to a soup kettle, then add the potatoes, rice, and sliced carrot.

Cook and puree

  1. Pour in the water and cook slowly until the vegetables are tender, about 1 hour.

  2. Press the mixture through a puree sieve and return it to the kettle.

Thicken and serve

  1. Moisten the corn starch with a little cold milk, then add it to the puree along with the milk.

  2. Stir continuously until boiling, season with salt and pepper, and serve with croutons.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

  3. Potato + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  5. Rice + corntop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down during simmering to give the puree body and a smooth, thick texture.
Butter
Fat that browns the onion and adds richness to the finished soup.
Corn starch
Thickens the liquid when heated to a boil, giving the puree a silky body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, softening the soup's flavor.
Rice
Softens during cooking and helps thicken the puree.
Onion
Browning in butter builds sweet, savory depth in the base.

The step that matters

Stirring the corn starch in while boiling. Corn starch must be moistened in cold milk first so it does not clump, then stirred constantly until boiling so the starch granules swell and thicken the soup evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, potato, tomato, rice, butter, corn, milk):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Okrafits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, potato, tomato, rice, butter, corn, milk. 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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