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Brown Turkey Soup

A hearty soup made from a turkey carcass, minced turkey meat, onion, flour, and water, simmered for at least two hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Brown Turkey Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove all scraps of meat from the turkey carcass and mince them finely.

  2. Mince any available bits of heart, liver, or gizzard.

Make the soup

  1. In a soup kettle, heat 2 tablespoons of butter until smoking hot.

  2. Add the sliced onion, minced turkey meat, and any cold stuffing to the kettle; let them brown together.

  3. Stir in 2 heaping tablespoons of flour and let it brown.

  4. Pour in 4 quarts of boiling water, add 2 teaspoons of salt and ¼ teaspoon of pepper; stir thoroughly.

  5. Add the turkey carcass without breaking it, cover the kettle, and let the soup cook slowly for at least 2 hours.

Serve

  1. Remove the turkey carcass and serve the soup hot with all the other ingredients.

  2. For added flavor, pour a glass of wine into the tureen before serving, if desired.

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 + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Turkey + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together540 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Turkey carcass
Releases flavor and gelatin into the water during long, slow simmering.
Butter
Carries the onion and meat browning and adds richness to the soup.
Onion
Browns in the butter to add sweetness and savory depth.
Flour
Browns with the fat and thickens the broth slightly.

The step that matters

Browning the flour. Letting the flour brown in the hot fat before adding water develops nutty, roasted flavor and color. Adding water too early leaves a raw, pasty taste and a pale broth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, meat, liver, butter, flour, pepper, wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, meat, liver, butter, flour, pepper, wine. 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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