Why it works: Onion and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
In a pot, heat oil or butter and fry the sliced onion until browned.
Add the vegetable stock, toast, celery seed, and chopped seasonal vegetables.
Boil for 3 to 4 hours.
Mash the vegetables through a colander and return to the pot.
Boil until the soup reaches the desired consistency.
Serve
Serve with pieces of dry toast.
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.
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Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,518 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Butter + celerytop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,049 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Onion
- Browning in the hot fat builds a deeper, sweeter flavour base for the soup.
- Toast
- Starch from the bread thickens the soup and adds a toasted, savoury note.
- Seasonal vegetables
- Provide the main body, sweetness and flavour once cooked down and mashed.
- Vegetable stock
- Forms the liquid base that carries flavour and gives the soup its volume.
The step that matters
Boil until the soup reaches the desired consistency. Long boiling reduces the liquid and breaks down the vegetables and starch, so thickness changes quickly. Checking regularly prevents the soup from becoming too thick or too thin.
Swap the celery
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter):
- Garlicfits better
- Capersfits better
- Thymefits better
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter. 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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