Name: Norwegian Sweet Soup
Ingredients: 1 pint cranberries, stewed and strained; ½ cup sago, cooked until clear; 1 cup seedless raisins, cooked alone; Sugar, to taste; Wine or juice of 1 lemon; 1 egg white, beaten

Why it works: Raisin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Norwegian Sweet Soup

Ingredients

1 pint cranberries, stewed and strained
½ cup sago, cooked until clear
1 cup seedless raisins, cooked alone
Sugar, to taste
Wine or juice of 1 lemon
1 egg white, beaten

Directions

Combine the stewed cranberries, cooked sago, and cooked raisins in a pot. Sweeten the mixture to taste.
Flavor with wine or the juice of 1 lemon.
Decorate the soup with spoonfuls of beaten egg white.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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.

Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,481 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Raisin + eggtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,556 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Raisin + winetop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,324 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together9,581 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Cranberries: Provide the main fruit flavor and tartness that define the soup.
Sago: Thickens the liquid as it cooks, giving the soup body.
Raisins: Add sweetness and soft texture as they release flavor into the soup.
Egg white: Sets into soft, white clouds when spooned onto the hot soup, serving as decoration.