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Turkey Soup, Economical

A simple turkey bone broth thickened with rice or arrowroot, optionally flavored with celery, onion, carrot, and vermicelli.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Turkey Soup, Economical

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Break turkey bones and trimmings into small pieces.

  2. Place the pieces in a stewpan.

  3. Add any leftover forcemeat or sauce.

  4. Pour in 2 quarts of stock.

  5. Bring the mixture to a slow boil.

  6. Skim the surface carefully.

  7. Add salt, pepper, celery, onion, and carrot.

  8. Simmer gently until the bones are clean.

Strain and season

  1. Strain the soup.

  2. Remove fat from the strained soup.

  3. Season further if desired.

  4. Thicken with ground rice or arrowroot mixed with a little stock.

  5. Alternatively, clarify the soup if a clear version is preferred.

Add the finishing ingredients

  1. Add vermicelli, macaroni, or sliced vegetables.

  2. Boil the added ingredients for a few minutes before serving.

Alternative stock

  1. If no stock is available, boil 2 pounds of inferior beef parts in 5 pints of water for 2-3 hours.

  2. You can also use ½ pound of fresh beef with ½ tablespoon of Bovril dissolved in the liquid.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey bones and trimmings
Provide the main flavour and body of the soup as they simmer.
Ground rice or arrowroot
Thickens the strained soup so it feels fuller in the mouth.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the bones.

The step that matters

Skim the surface carefully. Skimming removes foam and coagulated proteins that rise as the liquid heats, keeping the soup clean-tasting and clear rather than cloudy or greasy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, pepper, celery, carrot, rice, beef):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, pepper, celery, carrot, rice, beef. 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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