Skip to main content
Main

Oatmeal Soup

A simple soup made with oatmeal, celery, onion, turnip, butter, pepper, salt, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Oatmeal Soup

Why it works: Celery and turnip are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,418 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Oatmeal Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and chop the celery, onion, and turnip into small pieces.

  2. In a pot, combine the chopped vegetables and 2 quarts of water, and bring to a boil.

  3. Stir in the oatmeal and let it cook gently for 2 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Rub the mixture through a sieve, adding hot water if necessary.

  2. Return the soup to the pot, add the butter, pepper, and salt, and bring to a boil.

  3. Serve with toasted bread or plain rusks.

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 + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,252 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

Coarse oatmeal
Thickens the soup as it cooks, giving it body and a smooth, hearty texture.
Celery
Adds savory, aromatic flavor to the water as it simmers.
Spanish onion
Adds sweetness and savory depth as it softens in the liquid.
Turnip
Contributes mild, slightly peppery flavor and body to the broth.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Rubbing the mixture through a sieve. Pressing the cooked vegetables and oatmeal through a sieve breaks them down and removes fibrous bits, producing a smooth texture. Adding hot water as needed keeps the purée loose enough to pass through.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, turnip, 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.

You might also like

Cream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesTurnip SoupTurnip Soup43 recipesCelery StewCelery Stew25 recipesCelery CroquettesCelery Croquettes16 recipes