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A thickened soup made from meat scraps, water, vegetables, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place scraps of meat or game in a pot with water.

  2. Add a small quantity of chopped vegetables to the pot.

Simmer and finish

  1. Allow the soup to boil slowly for a long time, skimming frequently.

  2. Add carrots 45 minutes before serving.

  3. Add potatoes and onions 20 minutes before serving.

  4. Mix flour with cold water and add to the soup, breaking up any lumps.

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

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

  4. Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,029 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Scraps of meat or game
Release flavour and body into the broth as they simmer slowly.
Flour
Thickens the broth when mixed with cold water and stirred in.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body to the soup as they soften during cooking.
Potatoes
Soften and thicken the soup slightly as their starch releases into the broth.

The step that matters

Mixing flour with cold water before adding it. Flour added directly to hot liquid clumps instantly. Whisking it into cold water first disperses the starch so it thickens smoothly when stirred in.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, carrot, potato, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, carrot, potato, 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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