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Mixed Vegetable Soup

A hearty soup made with cabbage, potatoes, carrots, turnip, onion, leek, tomatoes, celery, green pepper, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mixed Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Bring the water to a rolling boil in a large pot.

  2. Add all the vegetables except the potatoes and tomatoes.

  3. Boil rapidly for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to simmer for 1 hour.

  4. After 1 hour, add the potatoes, tomatoes, butter, salt, and pepper.

  5. Cook for an additional hour with the lid partially off.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Cabbage + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 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

Cabbage
Adds bulk and a mild sweetness as it softens in the broth.
Potato
Thickens the broth slightly as its starch releases during simmering.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and color, and holds its texture through long simmering.
Tomatoes
Contribute acidity and body, giving the broth depth of flavor.
Butter or drippings
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor through the broth.

The step that matters

Adding the potatoes and tomatoes after the first hour. Potatoes and tomatoes added at the start would break down into mush during the two-hour simmer. Holding them back keeps their texture intact.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cabbage, potato, carrot, turnip, onion, leek, celery):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cabbage, potato, carrot, turnip, onion, leek, celery. 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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