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Game, Soup

A hearty soup made with game, ham, beef, onions, celery, and water, served over fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Game, Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Joint the game neatly.

  2. Cut the ham and onions into small pieces, then fry them in butter until light brown.

  3. Cut the beef into strips.

Make the soup

  1. Add the beef strips and a little pepper to the soup pot, then pour in the water.

  2. Heat slowly, then stew gently for 2 hours.

  3. Remove the pieces of bird and place them in a bowl.

  4. Cook the soup for an additional hour.

  5. Strain the soup and cool it.

Finish and serve

  1. Drop in the celery and simmer for 10 minutes.

  2. Serve over fried bread in the tureen.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Grouse or partridges
Provides the main flavour and lean meat for the soup.
Lean beef
Adds savoury depth and body to the broth as it stews.
Lean ham
Contributes salty, savoury flavour to the stock.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma when fried until light brown.
White celery
Adds fresh, mild aromatic flavour near the end of cooking.

The step that matters

Strain and cool the soup before adding the celery. Cooling and skimming the stock lets fat rise and solidify so it can be removed, leaving a clearer, lighter broth before the final simmer.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, ham, onion, beef, bread, butter, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, ham, onion, beef, bread, butter, 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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