Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Onion Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Melt the butter in a stewpan.
Add the sliced onions and fry until nicely browned.
Stir in the rolled crackers and pepper.
Pour in the boiling milk and water.
Let it simmer for 15 minutes and serve.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Onion + milktop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,418 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- White onions
- Provide the main body and sweetness as they brown in the butter.
- Butter
- Carries the frying of the onions and adds richness to the soup.
- Crackers
- Thicken the soup as they absorb liquid and soften during simmering.
- Milk and water
- Form the liquid base that turns the onions and crackers into a soup.
The step that matters
Fry the onions until nicely browned. Browning develops deep, sweet flavour through the Maillard reaction and caramelisation. Pale onions give a flat, raw-tasting soup, so the colour should be reached before the liquid goes in.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, milk):
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Tomatofits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, 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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