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A soup made with 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 beef and mutton into small pieces.

  2. Combine the meat with cold water in a large pot.

Simmer

  1. Add isinglass, allspice, and sage to the pot.

  2. Bring to a boil and then simmer for several hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the soup and add vermicelli and mushroom ketchup before serving.

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. Mushroom + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together399 recipes

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

  5. Beef + corntop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,028 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Gravy beef
Provides meaty flavour and body to the broth as it simmers.
Scrag of mutton
Adds rich meat flavour and gelatinous body to the broth.
Isinglass
A gelatine-like agent that adds body and a silky mouthfeel to the soup.
Vermicelli
Thin pasta that adds starch and a soft, delicate texture to the finished soup.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds concentrated savoury, umami depth to the seasoned broth.

The step that matters

Simmer for several hours. A gentle simmer extracts flavour and gelatine from the meat slowly. A hard boil makes the broth cloudy and can toughen the meat, so keep the heat low once it reaches a boil.

Swap the sage

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

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

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