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Soup

Bran Stock

A simple soup made by boiling bran in water, optionally flavored with onions, salt, pepper, vegetables, or sweetened with molasses or honey.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Bran Stock

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Put a large handful of bran into 1 quart of water.

  2. Boil and then simmer until the quantity is reduced to half.

  3. For a thicker soup, add onions, coarse sea salt, black pepper, and a few vegetables.

  4. For a sweet version, mix in molasses or honey.

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. Pepper + molassestop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Onion + molassestop 36% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together524 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Bran
Thickens the broth as it simmers, giving the soup its body and texture.

The step that matters

Simmering until reduced by half. Reducing the liquid concentrates the flavor and thickens the soup. Stopping too early leaves it thin and watery, while boiling too hard can scorch the bran on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, molasses. 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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