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Turnip Soup

A veal-based soup with turnips, onion, herbs, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Turnip Soup

Why it works: Turnip and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 367 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Turnip Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine the knuckle of veal and water in a large pot.

  2. Cover and simmer gently for 4 hours.

  3. Skim off the fat.

  4. Bring the stock to a boil.

Add vegetables and finish

  1. Add the onion, turnips, and minced herbs to the pot.

  2. Let simmer for 1 hour.

  3. Strain the soup and return the liquid to the pot.

  4. Stir in the milk mixed with butter.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

  6. Bring to a boil while stirring continuously to prevent scorching.

  7. Remove from heat.

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 + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together367 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,252 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

Veal knuckle
Releases gelatin and savoury flavour into the water, giving the stock body.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and starchy body as they cook into the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the soup's flavour while blending with the stock.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rounded mouthfeel in the finished soup.
Sweet marjoram or thyme
Contributes aromatic herbal flavour infused into the stock.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil while stirring continuously. Milk contains sugars and proteins that scorch and stick to the bottom of the pot when heated, so constant stirring prevents burning and keeps the soup smooth.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, turnip, marjoram, milk, 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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