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Soup

Squirrel Soup

A soup of squirrel meat simmered with vegetables, strained, and thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 36 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Squirrel Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and simmer

  1. Wash and quarter three or four good sized squirrels.

  2. Put them on, with a small tablespoonful of salt, directly after breakfast, in a gallon of cold water.

  3. Cover the pot close, and set it on the back part of the stove to simmer gently, not boil.

  4. Add vegetables just the same as in case of other meat soups in the summer season, especially corn, Irish potatoes, tomatoes and Lima beans.

Strain and thicken

  1. Strain the soup through a coarse colander when the meat has boiled to shreds, to remove the bones.

  2. Return the soup to the pot, and after boiling a while longer, thicken with a piece of butter rubbed in flour.

Serve

  1. Toast two slices of bread, cut them into one-half inch dice, and fry them in butter.

  2. Put the fried bread into the bottom of the tureen, and pour the soup boiling hot upon them.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1492Calories
63 gProtein
44 gFat
208 gCarbs

Counts 15 of 18 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 15 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Beef100g cooked250
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cracker5 saltine crackers (15g)66
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Turnip1 medium (122g)34
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Liquornot in our table0
Vealnot 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 F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. 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. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

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

  5. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 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

Squirrels (in the method)
Provide the meat that cooks down into the body of the soup.
Butter rubbed in flour
Thickens the soup as the flour starch swells in the hot liquid.
Bread
Fried into dice, it becomes crisp croutons that soak up some soup at serving.

The step that matters

Simmer gently, not boil. A hard boil toughens meat proteins and breaks the broth cloudy, while gentle heat keeps the meat tender and the soup clear.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, beef, tomato, flour, butter, milk, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, beef, tomato, flour, butter, milk, egg. 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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