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Turkey Soup

A clear soup made from turkey bones, water, savory, celery, flour, pepper, 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.

Make the broth

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

  2. Add the summer savory and chopped celery.

Thicken and season

  1. Just before serving, thicken the soup with browned flour.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt, and add a small piece of 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 meaty flavour and body into the water as they simmer, forming the base broth.
Flour
Starch swells when heated in the liquid, thickening the soup.
Butter
Adds fat that gives the finished soup richness and a smoother mouthfeel.
Celery
Adds a fresh, aromatic vegetable flavour to the broth.
Summer savory
Contributes a herbal, peppery aroma to the soup.

The step that matters

Thickening with browned flour. Flour must be heated in the hot soup for its starch to swell and thicken the liquid. Adding it only just before serving leaves little time for this, so the soup may stay thin or taste of raw flour if the flour is not fully cooked through.

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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