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Soup

Bran Stock

A simple soup made by simmering bran with water, onions, salt, pepper, optional vegetables, and optional molasses or honey for sweetness.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Bran Stock

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the bran and water in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture, then reduce heat and simmer until the volume is reduced by half.

  3. Add onions, salt, pepper, and any vegetables you like for a flavorful soup.

  4. Stir in molasses or honey for a sweet version.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + molassestop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Onion + molassestop 36% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together524 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Bran
Absorbs liquid as it simmers, giving the soup body and a thicker texture.
Onions
Add savory aroma and a mild sweetness as they soften in the broth.
Molasses or honey
Adds sweetness and a deeper, rounder flavor to the sweet version.

The step that matters

Simmering until the volume is reduced by half. Reducing the liquid concentrates the flavor and thickens the soup. Simmering gently and checking the volume helps prevent over-reducing, which can make the soup too thick or scorch on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, molasses. 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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