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Vegetable Soup

A simple soup made with stock, diced vegetables, sago, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Vegetable Soup

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 ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the sago in water for 1 hour.

  2. Drain the sago.

  3. Cut all the vegetables into small dice.

Make the soup

  1. Add the sago to boiling stock.

  2. Add the diced vegetables to the soup.

  3. Simmer the soup for 1 hour.

  4. Season the soup with salt, pepper, and gravy browning.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Sago
Swells as it cooks, thickening the soup and giving it a soft, slightly gelatinous body.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour and cooks the vegetables and sago.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and colour, and softens during simmering.
Turnip
Contributes a mild, slightly peppery flavour and a firm-to-tender texture after simmering.
Onion
Builds savoury depth and aroma as it softens in the simmering stock.
Celery
Adds a fresh, herbal aroma and subtle savoury background flavour.

The step that matters

Add the sago to boiling stock. Sago must go into boiling liquid and be kept moving so the grains do not clump together. Soaking first hydrates the starch so it thickens evenly during simmering.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, pepper, celery. 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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