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Soup

Sylvester Graham Soup

A vegetable soup made with onions, carrots, turnips, cabbage, celery, stewed tomatoes, butter, milk thickened with cornflour, parsley, pepper, sea salt, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery 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 ↓

Sylvester Graham Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop all the vegetables and parsley very finely.

  2. In a large pot, combine the chopped vegetables and parsley with 3 quarts of water.

Cook

  1. Simmer gently until the vegetables are tender.

  2. Add the stewed tomatoes, butter, and thickened milk to the pot.

  3. Boil for about 10 minutes, stirring 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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Adds sweetness and savory depth as they soften in the broth.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body as they soften during simmering.
White turnips
Contribute a mild, slightly peppery flavor and soft texture to the soup.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a mild sweetness as it cooks down.
Stewed tomatoes
Add acidity and a rounded, tangy flavor to the soup.
Milk thickened with cornflour
Makes the soup creamier and richer, with cornflour providing body through starch.

The step that matters

Adding the thickened milk. Cornflour thickens only when it reaches a boil, and milk can scorch or curdle with acidic tomatoes. Stir constantly while the mixture boils so the starch thickens evenly and the milk stays smooth.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, turnip, celery, tomato, butter, 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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