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Turkey Soup

A simple soup made from turkey bones, water, celery, summer savory, flour, pepper, sea salt, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Turkey Soup

Why it works: Summer savory and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Turkey Soup

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.

Simmer the broth

  1. Boil the turkey bones in enough water to cover them for 45 minutes.

  2. Add the chopped celery and summer savory.

Finish the soup

  1. Thicken the soup with the browned flour just before serving.

  2. Season the soup with pepper and coarse sea salt.

  3. Add the butter.

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. Summer savory + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together106 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  3. Summer savory + flourtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together263 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Summer savory + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together671 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey bones
Release flavour and body into the broth as they simmer.
Celery
Adds a fresh, aromatic vegetable flavour to the broth.
Summer savory
Adds a peppery, herbal aroma to the soup.
Flour
Thickens the broth as its starch swells with heat.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Thicken the soup with the browned flour just before serving.. Flour must be fully dispersed into the hot liquid, or it clumps instead of thickening. Starch grains swell and thicken as the soup heats, so the soup should be stirred well while the flour is added and kept hot until it has thickened.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, summer savory, flour, pepper, butter):

  1. Sagefits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, summer savory, flour, 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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