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Clear Julienne Soup

A clear soup with julienned carrots, onion, turnip, celery, seasoned with pepper and salt, finished with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Clear Julienne Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Prepare the vegetables and cut them into fine strips like small matches.

Sweat the vegetables

  1. Melt the butter or fat in a small saucepan.

  2. Add the strips of vegetables with a little salt and pepper.

  3. Fry gently for a few minutes, shaking frequently to prevent browning.

  4. Drain the vegetables to remove excess fat.

Finish in the soup

  1. Add the drained vegetables to the hot soup.

  2. Simmer gently for about 15 to 20 minutes, keeping the soup well skimmed.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 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

Butter or good fat
Carries the vegetables while they soften gently and adds richness to the soup.
Carrot
Adds color and a mild sweetness as it cooks into the soup.
Turnip
Contributes a mild, slightly peppery flavor and firm texture to the strips.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma when gently fried in the fat.

The step that matters

Frying the vegetables gently. If the vegetables brown, they develop bitter, harsh flavors and darken the clear soup. Gentle heat and frequent shaking keep them pale and sweet, so the soup stays clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, celery, pepper, butter):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, celery, pepper, butter. 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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