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Cracker Soup

A hearty soup made with lean mutton, Boston crackers, milk, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cracker Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the mutton, onion, and bones in a pot with the cold water.

  2. Cook slowly for 2 hours.

  3. Strain the broth and cool it.

  4. Remove all fat.

  5. Return the broth to the heat.

  6. Skim as it heats.

  7. Season the broth.

Soak the crackers

  1. Season the crackers with salt and pepper.

  2. Pour the boiling milk over the crackers.

  3. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes in hot water.

  4. If the milk is not fully absorbed by the crackers, strain it off.

Assemble and serve

  1. Carefully place the crackers in a tureen.

  2. Stir the floured butter and parsley into the soup.

  3. Boil for 1 minute.

  4. Pour slowly over the crackers.

  5. Cover the tureen.

  6. Let it sit in hot water for 10 minutes before serving.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Boston crackers
Soak up the milk and thicken the soup, giving it a soft, body-filled texture.
Mutton
Releases flavor and gelatin into the water during slow cooking, giving the broth its body.
Butter and flour
Flour mixed with butter thickens the soup and adds richness.
Milk
Softens the crackers and adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the soup.

The step that matters

Remove all fat. Fat left in the broth floats on top and makes the soup greasy, so it is skimmed off before the broth is combined with the other ingredients.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, milk, butter, flour, pepper, onion, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, milk, butter, flour, pepper, onion, parsley. 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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