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Soup

Cream of Onions

A creamy soup made from onions, celery, parsley, and beef stock, thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cream of Onions

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Chop the onions, celery, and parsley.

  2. Boil the beef stock, onions, celery, and parsley together.

  3. Pass the mixture through a sieve.

  4. Return the liquid to the heat.

Finish the soup

  1. Thicken with butter and flour.

  2. Add chopped green onions and boil for 10 minutes.

  3. Stir in hot milk and season with salt and pepper.

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

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Butter + milktop 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

Onions
Break down during boiling to give the soup its main flavour and body.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the soup to a creamy consistency.
Hot milk
Adds richness and creaminess, softening the flavour of the stock.
Beef stock
Provides the savoury liquid base that the vegetables cook in.

The step that matters

Thicken with butter and flour. Flour must be cooked in the fat before liquid is added in a roux; otherwise it stays raw-tasting and clumps. Thickening works best when the soup is hot and the flour is evenly mixed in.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, parsley, butter, flour, milk, 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.

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