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Soup

White and Other Soups

A soup made by stewing pumpkin or vegetable marrow with butter, salt, sugar, pepper, water, flour, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

White and Other Soups

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Stew the pumpkins or vegetable marrow gently with butter, salt, sugar, pepper, and water for 20 minutes until soft.

  2. If desired, stew the sliced onion with the marrow for added flavor.

  3. Once pulped, gradually stir in flour and milk, mixing well.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pumpkin + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,889 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pumpkins or vegetable marrow
Forms the soup's main body and sweet, earthy flavor once softened and pulped.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor while the vegetables stew gently.
Flour
Thickens the pulped vegetables and milk into a smooth, body-rich soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and moisture, softening the soup's texture and mellowing flavors.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour and milk. Adding flour to hot pulp can clump it, so stir gradually while mixing well. Flour thickens as its starch swells in liquid, so a smooth blend gives an even texture.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pumpkin, butter, sugar, pepper, flour, milk):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pumpkin, butter, sugar, pepper, flour, milk. 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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