Name: Squash and Goose Bone Soup
Ingredients: 2-3 cups squash, cut into 2-3 inch pieces; 1 pint milk; 3 tablespoons flour; 3 tablespoons butter; goose bone stock; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; 1 tablespoon onion juice

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Squash and Goose Bone Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the squash

Place the squash in a saucepan and cook slowly until tender.
Press the cooked squash through a colander and return it to the kettle.

Make the soup

In a bowl, rub together the flour and butter until smooth.
Add the goose bone stock to the flour and butter mixture, stirring until creamy.
Stir in the milk, then add pepper, coarse sea salt, and onion juice to taste.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Squash: Forms the body of the soup and gives it a mild, naturally sweet flavor.
Flour: Thickens the soup as it combines with the butter and liquid.
Butter: Adds richness and carries flavor, and it helps the flour blend smoothly.
Milk: Adds creaminess and softens the soup's texture.
Goose bone stock: Provides a savory, meaty base for the soup.
Onion juice: Adds a sharp, aromatic onion note to the seasoning.

The step that matters

Stirring the stock into the flour and butter. Flour needs to be smoothly blended with the fat before liquid is added. Stirring as the stock goes in keeps the flour from clumping, so the soup thickens evenly and turns creamy.

Swap the onion

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

Potatofits better
Capsicumfits better
Chivefits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, butter, 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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Squash and Goose Bone Soup