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Parsnip Soup

A creamy soup made from parsnips, onion, celery, butter, milk, and flour, finished with vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsnip and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 561 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Parsnip Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Scrape and finely chop the parsnips.

  2. Chop the celery and onion.

Cook and strain

  1. In a pot, combine the vegetables with water, butter, pepper, and salt.

  2. Cook over medium heat until the vegetables are tender.

  3. Rub the mixture through a sieve to create a smooth soup.

Finish the soup

  1. Return the soup to the pot, add the milk and flour, and bring to a boil for 5 minutes.

  2. Before serving, stir in the vinegar, 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 + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together561 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Parsnip + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together669 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Parsnips
Provide the main flavour and body of the soup once cooked and puréed.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and gives a smoother mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the soup's flavour when stirred in.
Fine wheat flour
Thickens the soup as it boils, giving it more body.
Vinegar
Adds a touch of acidity that brightens the flavour of the sweet vegetables.

The step that matters

Bringing the soup to a boil after adding milk and flour. Flour thickens only when heated enough for its starch to swell, so the soup needs a proper boil. Milk can scorch or curdle on the base of the pot, so stir constantly and avoid letting it stick.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsnip, celery, butter, milk, wheat, flour, vinegar):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsnip, celery, butter, milk, wheat, flour, vinegar. 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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