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Tapioca Soup

A soup made with a soup bone, tomatoes, and tapioca, simmered slowly and served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Tapioca Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Boil the soup bone very slowly for 6 hours.

  2. Add the tomatoes and boil together for 20 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture.

Thicken and serve

  1. Soak the tapioca in clear water for 30 minutes, then add it to the strained soup.

  2. Let the soup boil for an additional 30 minutes.

  3. Serve hot, adding chopped celery if desired.

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. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Soup bone
Slow simmering draws flavor and gelatin from the bone, giving the broth body and depth.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and fresh, bright flavor that balances the rich broth.
Tapioca
Its starch swells and thickens the soup as it boils, becoming clear and giving a light body.

The step that matters

Boiling the tapioca after it is added. Tapioca starch must boil long enough for its granules to swell fully and gelatinize. Under-boiled starch stays chalky in taste and texture and fails to thicken the soup properly.

“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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