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Rassolnik

A Russian soup made with beef kidneys, barley, potatoes, pickled cucumbers, and herbs, finished with sour cream.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cucumber and sorrel match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 119 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Rassolnik

Time30 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kidneys

  1. Trim fat from kidneys, cut into pieces, and rinse them well.

  2. Cover the kidneys with cold water, bring to a boil, drain the water, and rinse the kidneys again.

  3. Cover kidneys with cold water again, boil for half an hour.

Make the soup

  1. Melt butter in a soup pot, add parsley root and onion, fry until onions are translucent.

  2. Add sliced potatoes to pot, cover with filtered broth, cook for 30 minutes.

  3. Ten minutes before the end of cooking, add cucumbers, chopped sorrel, and salt.

  4. Just before serving, add kidneys, sour cream, and parsley or dill.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

678Calories
50 gProtein
28 gFat
57 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
Beef100g cooked250
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Yogurt170g plain Greek100
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Cucumber1/2 cup sliced (52g)16
Dill5 sprigs fresh (1g) / 1 tsp dried4
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Sorrelnot 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 Wikibooks Cookbook.

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. Cucumber + sorreltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together119 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsley + sorreltop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together234 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  5. Potato + sorreltop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together72 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef kidneys
Provide the main meat, becoming tender after a long simmer in water.
Potatoes
Add starch that thickens the broth slightly and makes the soup hearty.
Pickled cucumbers
Add acidity and a tangy brine flavor that defines the soup.
Sorrel
Adds sharp, lemony acidity that brightens the broth.
Sour cream
Adds richness and a cooling tang that balances the acidic broth.
Onion
Builds a sweet, savory aromatic base when fried in butter.

The step that matters

Adding the cucumbers and sorrel near the end. Acids and pickled flavors soften and dull with long cooking, so adding cucumbers and sorrel ten minutes before the end keeps their brightness while the soup still has time to blend.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, parsley, onion, potato, sorrel, cream):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, parsley, onion, potato, sorrel, 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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