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Soup

Frugal Soup

A hearty soup made from bones, liver, ham, turnips, carrots, tomatoes, and sago, simmered slowly and seasoned with pepper, salt, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Frugal Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the bones and chop the meat, vegetables, and herbs.

  2. Soak the sago in a little cold water during this time.

Make the soup

  1. Cook everything slowly in the cold water for three hours.

  2. Strain the soup.

  3. Rub the vegetables and liver through a colander.

  4. Season the soup.

  5. Boil the soup.

  6. Skim off any foam.

  7. Add the sago.

  8. Cook for an additional 30 minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,252 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Bones
Release gelatin and flavour into the cold water during long, slow simmering, giving body to the broth.
Liver
Adds rich, deep flavour and body when rubbed through the strained soup.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and body as they cook slowly and are pressed into the soup.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and colour, and thicken the soup when pressed through a colander.
Sago
Thickens the soup as its starch swells during the final simmer.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body, balancing the richness of the meat and bones.

The step that matters

Skim off any foam. Foam rising during boiling carries impurities and fat from the meat and bones. Removing it keeps the soup clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (liver, ham, turnip, carrot, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against liver, ham, turnip, carrot, 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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