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Onion Soup, Bretonne

A Breton onion soup made with onions, butter, herbs, ham bone, navy beans, beef bouillon, salt, pepper, and croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Onion Soup, Bretonne

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and add the sliced onions, sweet herbs, and ham bone.

  2. Braise for 15 minutes.

  3. Add the soaked navy beans and cover with beef bouillon.

  4. Cook until the beans are thoroughly done.

  5. Remove the ham bone and bouquet of herbs.

  6. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

  7. Season with coarse sea salt and white pepper.

  8. Add more bouillon if the soup is too thick.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with croutons.

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. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Onion + beanstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,242 recipes

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

  3. Beans + beeftop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,134 recipes

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

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Ham + beeftop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,729 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Red onions
Sliced onions break down during braising to give the soup its body and sweet, savory base.
Navy beans
Soaked beans cook until soft and, once sieved, thicken the soup into a smooth purée.
Butter
Melted fat softens the onions and carries aroma into the soup for a rich flavor.
Ham bone
Simmered in the soup, it releases savory, smoky flavor into the broth.
Beef bouillon
Liquid that cooks the beans and sets the soup's savory backbone and consistency.

The step that matters

Rubbing the mixture through a fine sieve. Sieving breaks down the softened onions and beans into a smooth, even texture. If the beans are not fully cooked, they resist pressing and leave a grainy soup.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, ham, beans, beef):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, ham, beans, beef. 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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