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Soup

Carrot Soup

A soup made with onions, butter, celery, grated carrots, broth, and French roll crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Carrot Soup

Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Carrot Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. Combine the onions, butter, celery, and grated carrots in a stew-pan.

  2. Place the pan over low heat and simmer for 1 hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the broth and French roll crumbs.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil for 15 minutes.

  3. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

  4. Transfer the soup to a soup pot to keep warm without boiling.

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.

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.

  1. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + carrottop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Break down during simmering to give the soup its sweet, savory base.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavor and gives the soup a rich mouthfeel.
Celery
Contributes aromatic flavor and body as it softens during simmering.
Carrots
Add sweetness and color, and their starch thickens the puréed soup.
French roll crumbs
Absorb liquid and help thicken the soup for a smoother body.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a sieve. Pressing the cooked vegetables through a sieve breaks down their cell walls and fibers, producing a smooth purée. Skipping or rushing this step leaves the soup grainy and uneven in texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, celery, carrot):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, celery, carrot. 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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