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Onion Soup, Stanislaus Style

A savory soup of onions and water, served with toasted French roll crusts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Onion Soup, Stanislaus Style

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Butter the crusts of the French rolls and place them in a 350°F (175°C) oven to crisp.

  2. Cut off the ends of the onions, peel them, halve them, and slice them finely.

Make the soup

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and lightly fry the onions, stirring until nicely browned.

  2. Add the hot water, season with salt and pepper, and include the bread crusts.

  3. Cover the saucepan and bring to a boil, then transfer to the oven for 30 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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Caramelise into sweet, browned flavour that forms the base of the soup.
Butter
Carries the onions' browning and adds richness to the soup.
French rolls
Crisped crusts add bread body and absorb the broth as the soup cooks.

The step that matters

Frying the onions until nicely browned. Onions that are only softened stay pale and bland. Slow browning lets sugars caramelise and build the deep flavour the soup depends on, so stir often and keep the heat moderate to avoid scorching.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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