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Soup-herb Powder, or Vegetable Relish

A dried herb powder made from parsley, winter savory, sweet marjoram, lemon thyme, lemon peel, sweet basil, bay leaves, and celery seed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Soup-herb Powder, or Vegetable Relish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dry the herbs in a warm Dutch oven until completely dried.

  2. Pound the dried herbs in a mortar.

  3. Pass the powdered herbs through a double hair sieve.

Store

  1. Store the powder in a tightly sealed bottle to retain fragrance and flavor for several months.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Winter savory + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together780 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Winter savory + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together455 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  5. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Dried parsley
Adds fresh green herbal flavor to the blended powder.
Winter savory
Contributes a peppery, aromatic note that carries the soup flavor.
Sweet marjoram
Provides a sweet, floral aroma characteristic of the blend.
Lemon-thyme
Adds citrusy, aromatic flavor to the powder.
Dried lemon peel
Adds bright citrus aroma and acidity to the blend.
Sweet basil
Adds sweet, aromatic flavor to the powder.

The step that matters

Drying the herbs completely. Herbs left with residual moisture can clump, mold or lose aroma during grinding and storage. Drying them fully lets them pound to a fine powder and keeps their volatile aromatic oils stable for months.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, winter savory, marjoram, lemon, thyme, basil):

  1. Sagefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Oreganofits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, winter savory, marjoram, lemon, thyme, basil. 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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