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White Soup

A clear mutton soup thickened with eggs and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,595 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Cut the mutton into pieces and wash well.

  2. Put the mutton in a saucepan with 4 cups of water, onion, green ginger, salt, and white pepper.

  3. Cook until the meat is tender.

  4. Strain the soup into another saucepan.

Finish the soup

  1. Lightly beat the eggs.

  2. Mix a little flour with the milk.

  3. Stir the beaten eggs into the milk mixture.

  4. Add it to the boiling soup while stirring briskly.

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. Onion + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,595 recipes

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

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Ginger + white peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together388 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Mutton
Provides the meat and flavour that make up the body of the soup.
Eggs
Set into soft ribbons in the hot broth, giving the soup body and richness.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a mild sweetness that softens the broth's flavour.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture so it blends smoothly and gives the soup more body.

The step that matters

Adding the egg and milk mixture to the soup. Pour it into boiling soup while stirring briskly. Stirring disperses the mixture so the egg sets into fine strands instead of lumps. Adding it slowly to a gently simmering soup also helps the flour and milk blend evenly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, onion, egg, milk, flour, ginger):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, onion, egg, milk, flour, ginger. 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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