Name: Vegetable Soup
Ingredients: 1 cup rice; 1 quart cold water; 1 cup finely chopped cabbage; ½ cup onion, chopped; 2 large potatoes, sliced thin; salt to taste; pepper to taste; a little butter; milk to thin

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

In a pot, combine rice and cold water; bring to a boil.
Add chopped cabbage and onion; cook slowly until nearly done.
Add sliced potatoes and cook until soft.
Season with salt, pepper, and a little butter.
Thin the soup with milk to your desired consistency.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,081 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Rice + potatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together851 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice: Thickens the broth as it cooks and adds body to the soup.
Potatoes: Soften during cooking and give the soup a starchy body.
Cabbage: Adds bulk and a mild, sweet vegetable flavor as it cooks down.
Onion: Adds aroma and savory sweetness as it softens in the broth.
Milk: Adds richness and creaminess when used to thin the soup.

Swap the cabbage

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

Capsicumfits better
Chivefits better
Asparagusfits better
Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, onion, potato, pepper, butter, 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.