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Turnip and Rice Soup

A soup made with turnips, rice, onion, water, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Turnip and Rice Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a saucepan, combine the rice, onion, and white peppercorns.

  2. Add the water and bring to a boil, then cook for 1 hour.

  3. Rinse the mixture through a sieve back into the saucepan.

  4. Stir in the milk, salt, and black pepper, and heat until boiling.

  5. If desired, add the butter to the boiling mixture.

Serve

  1. Serve in a warm tureen and garnish with chopped parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Thickens the soup as its starch breaks down during long simmering.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness to the soup.
Onion
Builds savory depth as it softens and flavors the cooking liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Rinse the mixture through a sieve. Pressing the cooked rice and onion through the sieve releases starch and softens solids, giving the soup a smooth body. Rinsing too little leaves grainy texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turnip, rice, milk, pepper, butter, parsley):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, rice, milk, pepper, butter, parsley. 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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