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High-flavoured Onion-soup

A savory onion soup made with butter, onions, seasoned brown gravy, herbs, black pepper, cayenne, and cream, served with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,585 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

High-flavoured Onion-soup

Ingredients

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 the onions

  1. Melt the butter in a pot over low heat.

  2. Add the sliced onions and cook gently without browning them.

Make the soup

  1. In a separate pot, combine the brown gravy or stock with the faggot of herbs and bring to a simmer.

  2. Strain the stock and return it to the pot.

  3. Add the cooked onions and season with black pepper and cayenne.

  4. Let the soup simmer gently until the onions are tender and flavors meld, about 20 minutes.

  5. Stir in the boiling cream just before serving.

Serve

  1. Serve the soup with toasted bread on the side.

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. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Onions
Become soft and sweet as they cook slowly, forming the body and flavor of the soup.
Butter
Carries the onions' flavor and softens them gently without browning.
Brown gravy or stock
Provides the savory liquid base that the onions simmer in.
Boiling cream
Adds richness and a smooth, mellow finish when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Cooking the onions without browning them. Browned onions turn the soup bitter and dark, while gentle cooking draws out their natural sweetness. Low heat and patience keep the flavor mild and sweet.

Swap the thyme

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, pepper, cream, bread):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Thymethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, pepper, cream, bread. 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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