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Mutton Soup with Tapioca

A hearty mutton soup with vegetables and tapioca pearls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mutton Soup with Tapioca

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the mutton, bones, and 2 quarts of cold water in a large pot.

  2. Heat slowly until boiling.

  3. Add 2 quarts of hot water from the kettle once it boils.

  4. Chop the vegetables.

  5. Cover the vegetables with cold water.

  6. When the vegetables begin to simmer, discard the first water and replenish with hot water.

  7. Stew the vegetables until they are soft, about 5 hours, keeping the pot lid on.

  8. Strain the soup into a large bowl and let it cool to remove the fat.

  9. Return the clear broth to the pot.

  10. Season with salt and pepper, bring to a boil, and skim off any foam.

Add the vegetables and tapioca

  1. Add the vegetables with their cooking liquid and heat together for 10 minutes.

  2. Soak the tapioca in cold water for 1 hour.

  3. Cook the soaked tapioca in boiling water until clear, stirring often.

  4. Gradually stir the cooked tapioca into the soup until dissolved.

  5. Serve with grated cheese on the side.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 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

Mutton
Provides meaty flavor and richness to the broth as it stews.
Bones
Release gelatin and savory flavor into the broth during long simmering.
Tapioca
Thickens the soup as its starch gelatinizes, giving a slightly silky body.
Turnips
Contribute sweetness and body to the broth as they soften.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and color to the broth as they soften.
Onion
Adds aromatic depth to the broth as it cooks down.

The step that matters

Skim off the foam and fat. Foam and fat left in the broth can make it cloudy and greasy. Cooling and straining lets fat rise and solidify for removal, and skimming while boiling keeps the broth clear.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, onion, turnip, carrot, celery, parsley, pepper):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, onion, turnip, carrot, celery, parsley, pepper. 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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