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Vegetable Soup

A hearty soup made with peas, potatoes, onions, carrot, and milk, simmered for hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Vegetable Soup

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a large pot, combine water, green peas, potatoes, onions, carrot, dripping, oatmeal, brown sugar, salt, and pepper.

  2. Simmer the mixture for 3 hours.

  3. Pass the soup through a sieve to remove solids.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the liquid to the saucepan and heat until hot.

  2. Just before serving, stir in the milk.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Peas + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,994 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 thicken the soup and give it body.
Oatmeal
Adds starch that thickens the liquid and gives a smoother, heartier texture.
Milk
Adds richness and a mild, creamy body when stirred in at the end.
Dripping
Fat that carries flavor and adds a rounded, savory richness.
Onions
Release sugars during long simmering, adding sweetness and savory depth.

The step that matters

Stir in the milk just before serving. Milk held at a long boil can scorch on the pan and may curdle or separate from the hot soup. Adding it at the end, with the soup just hot, keeps it smooth and creamy.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, carrot, sugar, pepper, milk):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, carrot, sugar, pepper, milk. 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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