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Spring Soup and Soup a LA Julienne

A clear vegetable soup made with broth, turnips, carrots, celery, leeks or onions, lettuce, sorrel, asparagus, French beans or peas, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and sorrel match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 317 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Spring Soup and Soup a LA Julienne

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a large pot, combine the broth with turnips, carrots, celery, and leeks or onions.

  2. Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.

  3. Add the lettuce and sorrel, and continue boiling until tender.

  4. Just before serving, stir in the asparagus and French beans or green peas.

Julienne variation

  1. For Julienne soup, first sauté the carrots in butter until tender, then add the boiling stock.

  2. Skim off any fat from the surface and finish as above.

Serve

  1. Optionally, add chervil, spinach, green onions, or small tufts of broccoli or cauliflower.

  2. Serve with dried bread 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. Lettuce + sorreltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together317 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Leek + sorreltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together112 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + sorreltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together179 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Broth or shin of beef stock
Forms the clear liquid base that carries all the vegetables.
Turnips
Add body and a mild, slightly sweet flavour as they simmer.
Carrots
Contribute sweetness and colour, and soften to a tender texture when simmered.
Lettuce
Wilts into the broth, adding soft texture and a delicate, fresh flavour.
Asparagus
Adds a distinct green flavour and tender texture when added near the end.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour when the carrots are sautéed.

The step that matters

Adding the asparagus and French beans or peas. These green vegetables turn dull and mushy with long boiling. Adding them just before serving keeps their colour bright and their texture tender-crisp.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, turnip, carrot, leek, lettuce, sorrel, asparagus):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Parsleyfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, turnip, carrot, leek, lettuce, sorrel, asparagus. 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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