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Spring Fruit Soup

A soup made from rhubarb, onions, carrot, ham, butter, consommé, and bread crumbs, served with fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Spring Fruit Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and stew

  1. Peel and wash the rhubarb thoroughly.

  2. Blanch the rhubarb in water for 3-4 minutes, then drain it.

  3. In a stew pan, combine the rhubarb, sliced onions, carrot, ham, and butter.

  4. Stew gently over low heat until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the consommé and bread crumbs, then boil for 15 minutes.

  2. Skim off any fat, season with salt and Cayenne pepper.

  3. Pass the soup through a fine sieve and serve with fried bread.

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 + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Forms the main body of the soup and softens into a tart, fruity base when stewed.
Onions
Slow stewing in butter brings out their sweetness, adding depth to the soup's flavor.
Butter
Carries flavor from the vegetables and adds richness to the soup's mouthfeel.
Consommé
Provides the clear, savory liquid that the vegetables are cooked and boiled in.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid during boiling, helping thicken the soup and give it body.

The step that matters

Stew gently over low heat until tender. Over high heat the butter and vegetables can scorch or brown unevenly, giving a bitter taste. Gentle heat softens the rhubarb and onions evenly and draws out their flavor without burning.

Swap the rhubarb

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, carrot, ham, butter, bread, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Rhubarbthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, ham, butter, bread, 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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