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Vegetable Soup

A hearty broth of beef stock and vegetables, finished with milk and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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. Combine beef stock, carrots, turnips, onions, parsley, tomatoes, and potatoes in a large pot.

  2. Add clear water and bring to a boil.

  3. Cook for 1 hour.

  4. Remove the parsley and strain the vegetables through a sieve.

  5. Return the strained mixture to the pot, add milk, salt, and cayenne pepper.

  6. Boil for an additional 20 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve over fried toast cut into dice in a heated tureen.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down during simmering to give the strained soup body and thickness.
Milk
Adds richness and a creamy, mellow texture to the finished soup.
Beef stock
Provides the savory meaty base that carries the flavour of the soup.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften in the broth.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and fruity brightness that balances the sweet root vegetables.

The step that matters

Strain the vegetables through a sieve. Pressing the cooked vegetables through a sieve breaks them into a smooth purée that thickens the broth. Skipping or rushing this leaves the soup thin and chunky.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, onion, parsley, milk, potato):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, onion, parsley, milk, potato. 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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