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Partridge Soup

A hearty soup made with partridges, ham, root vegetables, spices, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Partridge Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the partridges

  1. Pick and draw the partridges, then cut them into 3-4 pieces.

  2. In a large stew pan, combine the partridges, ham, carrot, turnip, onions, celery, allspice, black pepper, mace, and cloves.

  3. Pour in 1 pint of cold water and set over high heat, watching until the water evaporates.

  4. Once the partridges and ham are browned, add 2 quarts of boiling water or broth.

Stew and clarify

  1. Let it stew slowly for 2 hours, then strain through a sieve into a clean stewpan.

  2. Beat 3 egg whites and shells with 1 pint of cold water, then pour into the soup.

  3. Heat the soup until just about to boil, then remove from heat.

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.

  1. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Partridges
Provide the main meat and rich flavour that the broth is built around.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty depth to the broth as it stews.
Egg whites (in the method)
Coagulate as the soup heats, trapping fine particles so the broth clears.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aroma as they soften and release flavour into the stock.

The step that matters

Heating after clarifying. Once egg whites are added, the soup must be heated gently to just below boiling. Vigorous boiling breaks up the egg raft, so it stops clarifying and the broth turns cloudy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, carrot, turnip, onion, celery, allspice, clove):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, carrot, turnip, onion, celery, allspice, clove. 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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