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Parsnip Soup

A soup made from sliced parsnips simmered in butter and stock, seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsnip and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,109 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Parsnip Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the butter in a stewpan.

  2. Add the sliced parsnips and simmer until tender.

  3. Add nearly ½ quart of stock and boil for 30 minutes.

  4. Pass the mixture through a fine strainer.

  5. Return the strained soup to the pot and add the remaining stock.

  6. Season with salt and cayenne, then boil and 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.

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. Parsnip + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

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

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Parsnip + buttertop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,051 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

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

What each ingredient does

Parsnips
Provide the main body and flavour of the soup, thickening it as they break down when simmered.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour when melted at the start of cooking.
Stock
Supplies the liquid that cooks the parsnips and sets the soup's consistency.

The step that matters

Pass the mixture through a fine strainer. Pressing the cooked parsnips through a fine strainer breaks them into a smooth purée and removes fibres, so the soup's texture depends on this step being thorough.

Swap the parsnip

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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.

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