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Onion Soup

A soup made from sautéed onions, stock, milk, salt, white pepper, and topped with Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Onion Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Slice the onions and sauté them in butter over medium heat until soft, or stew them in a little milk until soft.

  2. Add the stock and simmer slowly for about 15 minutes.

  3. Pass the mixture through a sieve.

  4. Add enough milk to achieve a proper consistency.

Season and serve

  1. Sprinkle in the pepper and salt, heat again, and serve with Parmesan cheese.

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

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

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Milk + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,608 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Onion + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,717 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

Onions
Provide the main body and sweet, savory flavor as they soften and break down.
Butter
Carries the onions' flavor and helps them soften and brown lightly while sautéing.
Stock
Forms the liquid base and adds savory depth during simmering.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softness, and adjusts the soup to a smooth, proper consistency.

The step that matters

Softening the onions. If the onions are not cooked until fully soft, the soup will taste harsh and have a coarse texture after sieving. Slow cooking over medium heat draws out their sweetness and lets them break down properly.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, milk, parmesan cheese. 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.

More onion soup recipes

French 31Brown 15with Milk 7White 5Bavarian 4Bermuda 4 See all 236 →

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