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Sorrel Soup

A soup made with potato, onion, sorrel, butter, milk, water, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Sorrel Soup

Why it works: Potato and onion 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 ↓

Sorrel Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel, wash, and chop the potato and onion.

Make the soup

  1. Boil the potato and onion in the water until tender, then rub through a sieve.

  2. Return the mixture to the saucepan, add the milk, sorrel, butter, and seasoning.

  3. Simmer gently for 10 minutes, then serve.

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

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

  2. Potato + sorreltop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together72 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

What each ingredient does

Potato
Thickens the soup as it breaks down, giving it a smooth, body-rich texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the sharpness of the sorrel.
Sorrel
Provides the soup's characteristic sharp, lemony acidity.

The step that matters

Rubbing the cooked vegetables through a sieve. Pushing the boiled potato and onion through a sieve breaks down their cell walls and starch, producing a smooth texture. Skipping or rushing this leaves the soup lumpy and fibrous.

Swap the sorrel

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Sorrelthe original

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

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