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Vegetable Soup

A clear soup made with stock, water, onions, carrots, turnips, parsley, cabbage, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Vegetable Soup

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, combine the stock and boiling water.

  2. Add the chopped vegetables: onion, carrot, turnip, parsley, and cabbage.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Cook until the vegetables are tender.

Alternative method

  1. Alternatively, cook them separately in boiling salted water before adding to the stock.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + cabbagetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Stock
Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries the flavor of the vegetables.
Tomato
Adds acidity and color, giving the broth a richer, rounder flavor.
Onion
Builds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens in the broth.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and body as it cooks until tender.
Turnip
Contributes a mild, slightly peppery flavor and firm texture that softens with cooking.
Cabbage
Adds bulk and a mild sweetness, becoming tender in the simmering liquid.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, carrot, turnip, parsley, cabbage, pepper):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Broccolifits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, turnip, parsley, cabbage, 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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