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Soup

Sago and Egg Soup

A soup made with sago, egg yolks, cream, wine, and sugar, seasoned to taste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Sago and Egg Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak and wash the sago.

Make the soup

  1. Stir the sago into the boiling white soup stock and simmer for 30 minutes.

  2. Add seasoning to taste.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg yolks.

  2. Pour the hot cream and wine over the beaten yolks, along with the sugar.

  3. Stir the mixture into the soup.

  4. Serve.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cream + winetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Wine + sugartop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together9,581 recipes

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

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
Swells as it simmers, thickening the soup and giving it a light, slightly chewy body.
Egg yolks
Enrich the soup and thicken it gently when stirred into the hot liquid, adding richness.
Hot cream
Adds richness and a smooth, mellow texture to the finished soup.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the richness of the cream and yolks.
Sugar
Adds a touch of sweetness that balances the savoury stock and wine.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture into the soup. Egg yolks scramble if they meet very hot liquid too quickly. Blend a little hot soup into the yolk mixture first, then add it slowly while stirring, so the soup turns silky instead of curdled.

“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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