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Beetroot Soup

A simple soup made from boiled beetroot, onions, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Beetroot Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the beetroot

  1. Peel the beetroots and boil them until tender.

  2. Mince the boiled beetroots finely and add them to the water or stock they were boiled in.

Season and finish

  1. Add a small amount of cornflour for consistency and a pinch of thyme.

  2. Stir in vinegar, brown sugar, and season with pepper and coarse sea salt to taste.

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. Beetroot + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Beetroot + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,261 recipes

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

  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

Beetroots
Provide the main body, deep colour and earthy sweetness of the soup.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the earthy flavour of the beetroot.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the vinegar.
Cornflour
Thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the soup a more consistent body.

The step that matters

Adding the cornflour. Starch thickens as it heats, so only a very small amount is needed. Too much makes the soup gluey or heavy. Stir it in thoroughly so it disperses evenly without lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beetroot, thyme, vinegar, sugar, pepper):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beetroot, thyme, vinegar, sugar, pepper. 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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