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Another Parsnip Soup

A soup made from parsnips simmered in veal stock, seasoned with salt and cayenne pepper, optionally finished with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsnip and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,109 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Another Parsnip Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the parsnips.

  2. Add the sliced parsnips to 5 pints of boiling veal stock or broth.

Cook and strain

  1. Stew gently for 30 minutes to 1 hour until the parsnips are tender.

  2. Press the parsnips through a sieve.

  3. Strain the soup.

Season and serve

  1. Season with salt and cayenne pepper.

  2. Bring the soup to a boil.

  3. Serve very hot.

  4. Add cream if desired.

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. Parsnip + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

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

  2. Veal + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Pepper + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Veal + parsniptop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together154 recipes

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

  5. Parsnip + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together325 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

Pepper and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 and thick, starchy texture once cooked and pressed.
Veal stock or broth
Supplies the liquid base and savory flavor for the soup.

The step that matters

Stew gently until the parsnips are tender. Parsnips must be fully softened before pressing through a sieve, otherwise the purée stays grainy and lumpy. Gentle stewing cooks them evenly without breaking the stock into a cloudy boil.

Swap the parsnip

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Parsnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, cream. 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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