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Cream of Carrot Soup

A creamy soup made from carrots, onion, butter, flour, milk, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cream of Carrot Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the carrot base

  1. Wash and scrape the carrots.

  2. Cook the carrots and onion in boiling water until tender.

  3. Press the mixture through a sieve to obtain 2 cups of stock and pulp.

Make the soup

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter.

  2. Add flour to the melted butter and stir until smooth.

  3. Gradually add the carrot stock and pulp, stirring constantly.

  4. Add the milk, salt, and white pepper, and heat through without boiling.

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

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

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,029 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Carrots
Provide the main flavour, colour and body of the soup once cooked and pressed.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour when melted with the flour.
Flour
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, creamy base when stirred into melted butter.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the soup's flavour.
Onion
Adds savoury depth to the carrot stock as it cooks.

The step that matters

Add the carrot stock gradually while stirring constantly. Adding liquid slowly to the flour and butter mixture while stirring keeps starch granules dispersed, which prevents lumps and gives a smooth, even thickness.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, onion, butter, milk, flour. 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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