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Semolina Soup

A light soup made with stock, semolina, onion, herbs, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Semolina Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a pot, gently boil the chopped onion and herbs in the stock for 15 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture and return the liquid to the pot.

Cook the soup

  1. Bring the liquid to a boil, then gradually add the semolina while stirring.

  2. Season with pepper and salt, then simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Semolina + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together99 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + semolinatop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together316 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Milk + oniontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Semolina
Thickens the stock as it cooks, giving the soup a light, body-filled texture.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the onion and herbs.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma to the stock during the initial boil.

The step that matters

Adding the semolina. Semolina must be added gradually while stirring the boiling liquid, otherwise it clumps and forms lumps that are hard to smooth out during the simmer.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, semolina, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, semolina, 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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