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Additions to Broths in Order to Form Clear Soups

A clear vegetable soup made by simmering turnip, carrot, onion, celery, and optional vegetables in broth, then straining and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Additions to Broths in Order to Form Clear Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup

  1. Chop the turnip, carrot, onions, and celery.

  2. In a pot, melt the butter and add the chopped vegetables.

  3. Stir in the sugar and broth.

  4. Bring to a boil.

Simmer and clarify

  1. Add any optional vegetables like peas, broccoli, cauliflower, or Brussels sprouts.

  2. Simmer until the vegetables are tender.

  3. Strain the soup through a fine sieve or muslin.

Finish

  1. Add butter, ketchup, lemon juice, cayenne, and browning.

  2. Simmer until the soup is clear.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Turnip + broccolitop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together190 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Broth
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the vegetables.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour from the vegetables it is melted with.
Onions
Contribute savoury aroma and depth to the broth as they soften.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and colour to the broth as it simmers.
Turnip
Adds mild, earthy flavour and body to the vegetable base.

The step that matters

Simmer until the soup is clear. Gentle simmering lets fine particles and proteins rise and settle so they can be strained or skimmed away, while a hard boil keeps them cloudy. Keep the heat low and avoid stirring the surface vigorously.

Swap the peas

The recipe marks peas as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turnip, carrot, onion, celery, butter, sugar, broccoli):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, carrot, onion, celery, butter, sugar, broccoli. 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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