Skip to main content
Main

Vegetable Soup

A broth of carrots, turnips, onions, celery, garlic, parsley, and spices simmered in water.

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

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Vegetable Soup

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the carrots, turnips, and onions; fry until they turn yellow.

  3. Stir in the celery and fry for about 6 minutes.

  4. Add the garlic, salt, pepper, cloves, parsley, and water.

  5. Bring to a simmer over low heat, skimming off any scum.

  6. Simmer for 3 hours, then strain and serve.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Carrots
Adds sweetness and body as they soften during frying and simmering.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and body to the broth as they cook down.
Onions
Browning in the butter builds savory depth and sweetness for the base.
Celery
Adds aroma and a savory, herbal note to the broth.
Butter
Carries the frying of the vegetables and adds richness to the soup.

The step that matters

Skimming off any scum. Scum rising as the water heats contains impurities that can cloud the broth and taste bitter if left to mix in during the simmer.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, onion, butter, celery, garlic, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, onion, butter, celery, garlic, pepper. 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.

More vegetable soup recipes

Spring 46Beef 45Winter 31French 11Lentil 9Clear 8 See all 425 →

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesTurnip SoupTurnip Soup43 recipesCelery StewCelery Stew25 recipes