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Sour Soup with Fish Balls

A sour soup made with carp or pike, vegetables, fish balls, and borsh or sauerkraut juice.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

Sour Soup with Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Set to boil thinly sliced onion, carrot and parsley root, together with the head and tail from the fish.

  2. After the fish head and tail and the vegetables are done, strain the liquid and remove the vegetables.

  3. Also remove the meat off the head and tail, sieve and add to the liquid.

Make the fishballs

  1. Skin the rest of the fish, debone and grind together with an onion slightly fried in oil and the slice of bread that was moistened in milk or water and then squeezed.

  2. Mix with an egg, some chopped greens, salt and pepper and make fishballs.

Cook the soup

  1. Set to boil, adding the fishballs made from the ground fish mixture, borsh or sauerkraut juice.

  2. When it is almost done, add the chopped greens.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

356Calories
11 gProtein
20 gFat
34 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 13 ingredients. The other 4 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
White Bread1 slice (30g) white79
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Dill5 sprigs fresh (1g) / 1 tsp dried4
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Sauerkrautnot in our table0
Carpnot in our table0
Pikenot 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. Parsley + dilltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together669 recipes

    Shared aroma: p-mentha-1,3,8-triene (camphor, herbal).

  3. Carrot + dilltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together321 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Dill + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,630 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Carp or pike
Provides the main protein that cooks into the tender fishballs and flavours the broth.
Egg
Binds the ground fish mixture so the fishballs hold their shape while cooking.
White bread
Soaked and squeezed, it adds moisture and softness to the fishball mixture.
Borsh or sauerkraut juice
Adds the sour acidity that defines the soup.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma to the broth and, lightly fried, to the fishball mixture.

The step that matters

Forming and simmering the fishballs. Ground fish is delicate and can fall apart if the mixture is too wet or the water boils hard. Keeping the simmer gentle lets the egg and bread set the balls so they stay whole.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, parsley, egg, bread, dill, pepper):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, parsley, egg, bread, dill, pepper. 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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