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Caper Soup

A soup made with water, milk, butter, capers, lemon, eggs, wheatmeal, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By T. R. Allinson · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Caper Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. Combine 2 pints of water, 1 pint of milk, 1/2 oz of butter, pepper, and salt in a saucepan.

  2. Boil the milk, water, and butter with the seasoning.

  3. Thicken the mixture with 1‑1/2 oz of Allinson fine wheatmeal rubbed smooth with a little milk.

  4. Chop the capers and add them to the soup, cooking gently for 10 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the soup from the heat, beat the eggs, and add them carefully to avoid curdling.

  2. Add the juice of half a lemon, reheat the soup without allowing it to boil, and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

356Calories
18 gProtein
14 gFat
43 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 12 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Turnip1 medium (122g)34
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Capers1 tbsp (9g) drained2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Macenot 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.

By T. R. Allinson. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

  3. Capers + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,222 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Celery + caperstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together405 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

Wheatmeal (in the method)
Thickens the soup as its starch swells when heated with liquid.
Eggs
Add richness and body as their proteins set gently during reheating.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a soft, mild richness to the broth.
Capers
Contribute a sharp, salty flavour that cuts through the creamy base.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the soup.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs. Egg proteins set and turn grainy or curdled when they get too hot. Removing the soup from the heat before beating in the eggs, and never letting it boil afterwards, keeps the soup smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, celery, capers, lemon, egg, carrot, onion):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Dillfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, celery, capers, lemon, egg, carrot, onion. 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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