Name: Vegetable Soup
Ingredients: 1 marrow bone; water (enough to cover the bone); coarse sea salt to taste; black pepper to taste; 5 potatoes, peeled and chopped; 3 onions, chopped; 1-2 carrots, grated; 1 pint canned tomatoes or 5 ripe tomatoes; 1 cup vermicelli

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 ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

Boil the marrow bone in enough water to cover until ready to skim thoroughly.
Add coarse sea salt and black pepper to taste.

Add the vegetables and simmer

Add the chopped potatoes, onions, grated carrots, and tomatoes.
Let the mixture boil slowly for at least 3 hours.
Half an hour before serving, add the vermicelli.

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.

Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,107 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,798 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,606 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Marrow bone: Releases flavour and body into the broth during long boiling.
Potatoes: Break down slightly during simmering, adding body and thickening the soup.
Tomatoes: Add acidity and moisture, giving the soup its tangy base.
Vermicelli: Adds starch that softens in the broth and gives a light, noodle-like texture.