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Soup

Carrot Soup

A soup made from carrots, onion, leek, butter or dripping, stock or water, bacon rinds, sweetened and seasoned, served with fried croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Carrot Soup

Why it works: Carrot and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,310 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Carrot Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the vegetables and cut them into small pieces.

Cook the soup

  1. Melt the butter or fat in a stewpan, add the vegetables, cover with a lid, and cook gently for 1 hour.

  2. Add the boiling stock or water and bacon rinds, and continue cooking gently until the vegetables are reduced to a pulp.

Finish and serve

  1. Pass the mixture through a sieve or strainer, then add sugar, salt, and pepper to taste.

  2. Reheat the soup and serve with fried croutons on the side.

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 + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

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

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

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

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

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

Carrots
Form the main body of the soup and, once cooked to a pulp, give it its thickness and sweet flavour.
Butter or dripping
Fat that softens the vegetables gently and carries flavour through the soup.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma as it softens in the fat.
Leek
Adds a mild onion-like aroma that builds the soup's base flavour.
Stock or water
Liquid that softens the vegetables further and carries them into a smooth, pourable soup.

The step that matters

Cooking the vegetables until they reach a pulp. Vegetables must break down fully so that straining yields a smooth soup. Gentle cooking under a lid softens them without browning, which keeps the flavour mild and the texture even.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, leek, butter, sugar, 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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