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Carrot Soup

A simple soup of carrots, potato, onion, and water, finished with butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Carrot Soup

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Carrot Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a saucepan, combine the carrot, potato, onion, and water.

  2. Cook until the vegetables are tender.

  3. Rub the mixture through a sieve, adding more water if needed.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the soup to the saucepan, add butter, salt, and pepper.

  2. Bring to a boil and serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Carrot
Provides the main body, sweetness and colour of the soup.
Potato
Its starch thickens the soup and gives it a smooth, creamy texture when sieved.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavour and a silkier mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a sieve. Pressing the cooked vegetables through a sieve breaks down their cell walls and releases starch, which makes the soup smooth. Adding water only as needed keeps the consistency pourable without thinning it too far.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Carrotthe original
  4. Leekfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, butter, pepper. 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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