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A soup made with gravy beef, mutton, isinglass, vermicelli, mushroom ketchup, allspice, sage, and cold water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 331 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Invalid Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the isinglass and meat into small pieces.

  2. Place them in 8 quarts of cold water.

Simmer

  1. Gradually bring to a boil, skimming off any foam.

  2. Add the vermicelli, mushroom ketchup, allspice, and sage.

  3. Continue to simmer until the flavors meld.

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. Allspice + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together331 recipes

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

  2. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Beef + muttontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Mutton + mushroomtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together685 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Mushroom + sagetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together371 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Gravy beef
Gives the soup its meaty body and savory flavor as it simmers.
Scragg of mutton
Adds rich meat flavor and body to the broth during slow simmering.
Isinglass
Adds gelatin, giving the broth a richer, silkier body as it dissolves.
Vermicelli
Thin pasta that softens in the broth and adds starchy texture.

The step that matters

Skimming off the foam. Foam rising during the first heating carries impurities from the meat. Removing it keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, mutton, mushroom, ketchup, allspice):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mutton, mushroom, ketchup, allspice. 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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