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Parsley Soup

Parsley soup is a simple broth made with parsley, water, oil, and a roux of flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,675 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Parsley Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine 2 tablespoons of oil and 3 pints of water in a pot.

  2. Add a bunch of parsley to the pot.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Simmer for at least 30 minutes.

Make the roux and finish

  1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil and ½ tablespoon of white flour in a frying pan over medium heat.

  2. Stir the mixture continuously until it turns golden brown.

  3. Gradually add hot water to the browned mixture, stirring until it reaches a liquid consistency.

  4. Pour the mixture into the broth.

  5. Let the combined soup boil together for 1 minute. 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.

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. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Parsley
Gives the soup its fresh, green, herbal aroma and flavor.
White flour
Thickens the soup once it is cooked in fat and browned.
Oil
Carries flavor and helps the flour cook evenly into a roux.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture continuously until it turns golden brown. Flour and fat can scorch quickly over medium heat. Constant stirring cooks the starch evenly and builds a nutty, browned flavor. Burnt flour turns bitter and loses much of its thickening power.

“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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