Name: Vegetable Soup
Ingredients: 2 cups mixed vegetables (carrots, peas, corn, etc.); 4 cups vegetable broth; 1 onion, chopped; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1 tablespoon olive oil; Salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

2 cups mixed vegetables (carrots, peas, corn, etc.)
4 cups vegetable broth
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

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

Heat olive oil in a pot over medium heat.
Add chopped onion and minced garlic; sauté until softened.

Simmer

Add mixed vegetables and vegetable broth; bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Garlic + olivetop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,873 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 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

Onion: Softens during sautéing and adds savory sweetness to the broth.
Garlic: Adds aroma as it cooks gently in the warm oil.
Vegetable broth: Provides the liquid that cooks the vegetables and forms the soup base.
Mixed vegetables: Supply the main body, texture and sweetness of the soup as they simmer.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, corn, onion, clove, garlic, olive, pepper):

Chickpeafits better
Beansfits better
Lentilsfits better
Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, corn, onion, clove, garlic, olive, 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.