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Carrot Soup

A simple soup made with carrots, onion, broth, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Carrot Soup

Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Carrot Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Peel and chop the carrots and onion.

Cook

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

  2. Add the chopped carrots and onion, and sauté until softened.

  3. Pour in the broth and bring to a boil.

  4. Reduce heat and simmer until the carrots are tender, about 20 minutes.

Finish

  1. Blend the soup until smooth, then season with salt and pepper.

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. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + chickentop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,338 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

Carrots
Provide the main body, natural sweetness and earthy flavor of the soup.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth when softened in butter.
Vegetable or chicken broth
Supplies the liquid that cooks the vegetables and sets the soup's consistency once blended.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps soften the vegetables gently at the start.

The step that matters

Simmering until the carrots are tender. Carrots that are not fully tender will blend into a grainy, fibrous texture rather than a smooth soup, so the simmer must run until they are soft all the way through.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

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