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Dessert

Norwegian Sweet Soup

A sweet soup of cranberries, sago, raisins, sugar, lemon juice, finished with beaten egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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

Directions

Prepare the components

  1. Stew and strain the cranberries.

  2. Cook the sago in water until clear.

  3. Cook the seedless raisins separately until soft.

Combine and finish

  1. Combine the cranberries, sago, and raisins.

  2. Sweeten the mixture to taste.

  3. Flavor with wine or lemon juice.

  4. Decorate 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.

  1. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Raisin + eggtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Raisin + winetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,324 recipes

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

  5. 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 tart fruit base and the soup's main flavor and color.
Sago
Thickens the soup as its starch swells and gelatinizes during cooking.
Seedless raisins
Add body and natural sweetness as they soften.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the tartness of the cranberries.
Wine or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet fruit flavor.

The step that matters

Cook the sago until clear. Sago starch granules stay opaque and chalky until fully cooked. Once they swell and turn translucent, the starch has gelatinized and will thicken properly. Undercooked sago leaves a gritty texture.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, wine, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, wine, 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.

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