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Soup

Mock Bisque Soup, Croutons

A vegetarian bisque soup made with butter, onion, carrot, celery, vegetable broth, milk, salt, pepper, and served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Mock Bisque Soup, Croutons

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the soup

  1. Melt butter in a pot over medium heat.

  2. Add onion, carrot, and celery; sauté until soft.

  3. Pour in vegetable broth and bring to a boil.

  4. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

  5. Stir in milk, salt, and pepper; heat through.

Serve

  1. Serve hot, topped with croutons.

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

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

  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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and flavour as it softens the vegetables without browning them.
Onion
Builds a sweet, savoury base as it softens in the butter.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and body to the soup base.
Celery
Contributes aroma and savoury depth to the base.
Vegetable broth
Forms the liquid that cooks the vegetables and makes up most of the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mellows the flavour of the broth.

The step that matters

Stir in milk, then heat through. Milk can curdle or scorch if it boils hard over direct heat. Adding it near the end and warming it gently keeps the soup smooth and creamy.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, carrot, celery, milk, 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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