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Soup

Beg's Soup

A Bosnian soup made with chicken, carrots, celery root, parsley, okra, rice, sour cream, egg yolks, lemon juice, and salt.

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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Beg's Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Mix meat and vegetables in the water, add salt and boil.

  2. When done, separate the liquid from the solid parts of soup and cut the meat and the vegetables in small pieces.

  3. When cut, re-add them to the liquid you drained previously.

  4. Put the entire pot to be boiled and add previously cooked rice and okra.

Finish and serve

  1. Before serving, add yolks and sour cream to the soup.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

548Calories
56 gProtein
5 gFat
70 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Chicken100g cooked165
Yogurt170g plain Greek100
Okra1 cup (100g)33
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Meatnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + okratop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together206 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken meat
Provides the main protein and savory flavor that the broth is built on.
Sour cream
Adds richness and a creamy body to the finished soup.
Yolks
Thicken the soup and add richness when stirred in.
Rice
Adds body and thickens the soup as it cooks.
Okra
Releases mucilage that adds thickness and a silky texture to the soup.

The step that matters

Adding the yolks and sour cream. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if they get too hot. Add them off the heat or just before serving, and temper them with a little hot broth first so they blend in smoothly and thicken gently.

Swap the okra

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, meat, carrot, celery, parsley, rice, cream):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Parsnipfits about as well
  4. Okrathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, meat, carrot, celery, parsley, rice, cream. 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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