Why it works: Cheese and swiss cheese share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 65 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓
Onion Soup Without Meat
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel and chop the onion.
In a saucepan, cook the onion in fat or butter over low heat until tender.
Brown and serve
Move the saucepan to a hotter part of the stove and cook the onion until browned, stirring constantly to prevent burning.
Add 1½ pints of boiling water or a mixture of milk and water.
Season with salt and pepper, bring to a boil, and serve over toasted bread or with fried bread cubes.
If not using milk, serve with grated mild cheese and garnish with fried onions if desired.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Cheese + swiss cheesetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together65 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Butter + swiss cheesetop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together413 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Onion
- Provides the main flavour and sweetness as it softens and browns in the fat.
- Fat or butter
- Carries the heat and helps the onion soften and brown without sticking.
- Toasted bread or fried bread cubes
- Soaks up the broth and gives the soup body and a crisp-soft texture.
The step that matters
Browning the onion. Stirring constantly over a hotter part of the stove keeps the onion from scorching. Browning builds deeper, sweeter flavour, while burnt onion turns bitter and spoils the broth.
“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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