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Julienne Soup

A vegetable soup with julienned turnip, carrot, celery, lettuce, and sorrel simmered in stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and sorrel match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 317 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Julienne Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the vegetables

  1. In a frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the turnip, carrot, celery, and sorrel, tossing until they are glazed, about 5 minutes.

  3. Reduce heat and cook the vegetables slowly for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  4. Press out excess butter from the vegetables and set aside.

Finish the soup

  1. Boil the lettuce in 1 cup of water for 10 minutes, then drain.

  2. Add the cooked vegetables and lettuce to the boiling stock.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes before serving.

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. Lettuce + sorreltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together317 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + sorreltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together179 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Turnip + lettucetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and carries the vegetables as they glaze and cook.
Turnip
Provides a firm, slightly peppery body that holds its shape in the soup.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and color as its sugars concentrate during slow cooking.
Celery
Contributes savory aroma and a firm texture to the soup.
Lettuce
Adds soft leafy body and a mild, fresh flavor to the finished soup.
Sorrel
Adds a bright, tart acidity that lifts the flavor of the soup.

The step that matters

Glazing and slow-cooking the vegetables in butter. Cooking over medium heat until glazed, then reducing the heat, lets sugars brown lightly and concentrates flavor. Rushing this over high heat can scorch the butter and vegetables, leaving a bitter taste.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turnip, celery, lettuce, sorrel, butter, pepper):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, celery, lettuce, sorrel, 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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