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Turnip Soup

A soup made from turnips, artichokes, potatoes, onions, butter, mushroom ketchup, pepper, salt, browning, and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Turnip Soup

Why it works: Turnip and artichoke match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 140 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Turnip Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Boil the turnips, artichokes, potatoes, and onions in the boiling water.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Rub it through a sieve.

  4. Return the strained soup to the pan.

Season and serve

  1. Add the butter, mushroom ketchup, pepper, salt, and browning.

  2. Serve very hot.

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. Turnip + artichoketop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Turnip + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together562 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

Turnips
Provides the main vegetable base and, once sieved, a smooth body to the soup.
Artichokes
Break down during boiling and sieving to add body and thickness to the soup.
Potatoes
Their starch thickens the soup as they cook and are pressed through the sieve.
Onions
Add savoury depth and aroma as they cook into the broth.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savoury depth to the soup.

The step that matters

Rub the cooked vegetables through a sieve. Pressing the soft, cooked vegetables breaks their cell walls and releases starch, which thickens the liquid and gives a smooth texture. Skipping or rushing this step leaves the soup thin and gritty with fibrous pieces.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turnip, artichoke, onion, butter, mushroom, ketchup, pepper):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, artichoke, onion, butter, mushroom, ketchup, 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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