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Parsnip Soup

A creamy soup of parsnips cooked in butter and veal stock, strained and seasoned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and white pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,057 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Parsnip Soup

2 quarts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the parsnips

  1. Melt the butter in a wide stewpan or saucepan over low heat.

  2. Slice the parsnips.

  3. Add them to the pan and let them stew gently until tender.

  4. Gradually pour in enough veal stock or broth to cover the parsnips.

Make the soup

  1. Boil the mixture slowly for 20 to 30 minutes.

  2. Press the soup through a fine sieve using a wooden spoon.

  3. Add enough stock to make a total of 2 quarts.

  4. Season with salt and white pepper or cayenne.

  5. Bring to a boil.

  6. Skim the surface.

  7. Serve hot with pale fried sippets.

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. Veal + white peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Butter + vealtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Parsnip + white peppertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together46 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Parsnip + vealtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

  5. Butter + parsniptop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,051 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

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

What each ingredient does

Parsnips
Provide the main body, sweetness and thick texture once cooked and pressed.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour as the parsnips stew gently.
Veal stock or broth
Supplies liquid that softens the parsnips and forms the soup's base.

The step that matters

Press the soup through a fine sieve. Pressing cooked parsnips through a fine sieve breaks down the fibres and yields a smooth, even texture. Skipping or rushing this leaves the soup gritty or stringy.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, parsnip, veal):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, parsnip, veal. 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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