Skip to main content
Main

Carrot Soup

A soup made with carrots, onions, bacon, rice, bay leaves, milk, and MARMITE.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Carrot Soup

Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Carrot Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve MARMITE in hot water.

  2. Wash rice and parboil it.

Make the soup

  1. In a stewpan, combine parboiled rice, shredded vegetables, and bay leaves.

  2. Fry bacon pieces until slightly crispy and add to the stewpan.

  3. Boil until vegetables are tender.

  4. Remove bay leaves and strain the soup through a fine sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the soup to the stewpan, season if necessary, and add milk and a small piece of butter.

  2. Bring to a boil again before serving.

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

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

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

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

  3. Carrot + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,477 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  5. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Carrots
Provide the main body, sweetness and colour of the soup as they soften.
Onions
Add savoury depth and aroma as they cook down into the soup.
Rice
Thickens the soup as its starch releases during boiling.
Bacon
Adds salty, smoky fat and savoury flavour to the broth.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the flavour at the end.
Marmite
Contributes concentrated savoury, umami flavour to the hot water base.

The step that matters

Boil until vegetables are tender. Carrots and onions must be fully softened so they break down and blend smoothly when straining. Undercooked pieces stay firm, leave a grainy texture and hold back the soup's body.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, rice, milk, 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.

More carrot soup recipes

Puree 5with Rice 3Creamy 3 See all 219 →

You might also like

Rice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesSteamed RiceSteamed Rice48 recipesRice Griddle CakesRice Griddle Cakes28 recipesRice and Cheese CasseroleRice and Cheese Casserole23 recipes