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Soup

Vegetable Soup

A vegetable soup made by simmering a marrowbone with potatoes, onions, tomato, barley and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Vegetable Soup

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Wash the marrowbone well and place it in a pot with several quarts of cold water.

  2. Simmer for 2 to 3 hours until the meat is tender.

  3. Add salt, celery seed or leaves, tobasco pepper pod, bay leaf, and parsley.

Add vegetables and finish

  1. Stir in the chopped potatoes, onions, tomato pulp, and pearl barley.

  2. One-half hour before serving, thicken the soup with flour mixed in cold water.

  3. Add dried okra if desired.

  4. Skim the soup well before adding salt and spices, and cook until the vegetables are tender.

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.

  1. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Marrowbone
Releases flavor and body into the broth as it simmers.
Potatoes
Soften during cooking and add starch and body to the soup.
Pearl barley
Swells as it cooks, adding chewy texture and thickening the soup.
Flour
Mixed with cold water, it thickens the soup slightly as it heats.
Tomato pulp
Adds acidity and savory depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim the soup well before adding salt and spices. Skimming removes foam and impurities that rise while simmering, keeping the broth clear and clean-tasting. Adding salt and spices after skimming lets you season the cleaned broth accurately.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, pepper, parsley, potato, tomato, barley, flour):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, pepper, parsley, potato, tomato, barley, flour. 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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