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Soup

Purée of Sago

A clear sago purée soup with celery, parsley, onion, milk, egg yolk, cream, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Evora Bucknum Perkins · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Purée of Sago

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Wash sago and cook with bay leaf, celery, parsley and onion in the water until clear.

  2. Add hot milk, rub through colander, add salt and keep hot.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, beat together the yolk of the egg and the cream.

  2. Stir several spoonfuls of hot soup into the mixture, turn all into the soup, stir well, but do not boil.

  3. Add chopped parsley, serve at once.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

182Calories
8 gProtein
11 gFat
13 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Evora Bucknum Perkins. 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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Cream + oniontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Cream + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,863 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

Cream and onion barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sago
Thickens the soup as its starch swells and turns it clear when cooked.
Egg yolk
Enriches the soup and thickens it gently when heated without boiling.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the soup finished with the yolk.

The step that matters

Do not let the soup boil after adding the egg and cream. Egg yolk thickens by gentle heat, and boiling can curdle or scramble it, leaving a grainy texture instead of a smooth, silky soup.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, parsley, celery, egg):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, parsley, celery, 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.

More sago soup recipes

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