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Turnip Soup

A soup made from turnip, onion, potato, butter, seasoning, and water.

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

Why it works: Onion and potato 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 ↓

Turnip Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash, peel, and chop the turnip, onion, and potato.

Cook and strain

  1. Cook the vegetables in the water until tender.

  2. Pass the mixture through a sieve.

  3. Return the mixture to the saucepan.

Finish and serve

  1. Add butter and seasoning, then bring to a boil.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together562 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Turnip
Forms the bulk of the soup and gives its main flavour and body.
Potato
Its starch thickens the liquid and gives the soup a smoother, fuller body.
Onion
Adds aroma and a mild sweetness as it softens in the water.
Butter
Adds fat, which gives richness and a smoother mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Cook the vegetables until fully tender. Vegetables that are fully softened break down easily when pressed through a sieve, giving a smooth texture. Undercooked pieces resist straining and leave the soup grainy and uneven.

Swap the turnip

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Turnipthe original

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