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Pumpkins and Squashes

A creamy pumpkin or squash soup made with butter, parsley, milk, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pumpkins and Squashes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the squash

  1. Peel the pumpkin or squash, remove the seeds, and cut into pieces.

  2. Boil the pieces in water with a little salt until cooked, then drain and strain.

Make the soup

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped parsley, salt, and pepper, then stir in the pumpkin or squash.

  3. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  4. Gradually pour in the milk while stirring, and simmer for an additional 10 minutes.

  5. Remove from heat and mix in the yolks of the eggs.

  6. Serve warm.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Pumpkin + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Pumpkin + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together364 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

Pumpkin or squash
Forms the body of the soup and gives it its bulk and mild sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and giving a smooth mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, mellowing the soup into a smooth texture.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich the soup and thicken it slightly as they are stirred in.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat. If the soup is kept at a simmer after they are added, they can scramble and turn grainy, so they are mixed in off the heat.

Swap the pumpkin

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Pumpkinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsley, pepper, milk, egg. 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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