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Cream Vegetable Soup

A soup of corn, peas, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, milk, butter, and noodles, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,107 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Cream Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

  1. Cut corn, peas, carrots, potatoes, and tomatoes finely.

  2. Cook in enough water to cover until done.

Finish and serve

  1. Add milk, butter, and noodles.

  2. Season to taste and serve when it steams.

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

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

  2. Corn + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together938 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down during cooking to thicken the soup and give it body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness, turning the vegetable broth into a creamy soup.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavour and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.
Noodles
Add starch and bulk, making the soup more substantial.

The step that matters

Adding the milk. Milk added to very hot soup can curdle or scorch on the bottom of the pot. Keeping the heat moderate and stirring while adding it helps keep the soup smooth.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, carrot, potato, tomato, milk, butter, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Peanutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, carrot, potato, tomato, milk, butter, 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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