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Game Soup

A hearty soup made with game birds, ham, beef, onions, celery, and water, served over fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Game Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Joint the game neatly.

  2. Cut the ham and onions into small pieces and fry in butter until light brown.

  3. Add the beef, cut into strips, and a little pepper to a soup pot.

Simmer the soup

  1. Pour in the water, heat slowly, and stew gently for 2 hours.

  2. Remove the pieces of bird and cover them in a bowl.

  3. Cook the soup for an additional hour, then strain and cool.

  4. Add the celery and simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve over fried bread in a tureen.

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

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

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

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Grouse, partridges, or rabbits
Provide the rich, meaty flavour that forms the base of the soup.
Lean beef
Slow stewing breaks down its connective tissue, enriching the broth with body and flavour.
Lean ham
Frying adds savoury, salty depth to the soup.
Onions
Browning in butter builds sweetness and aroma into the broth.
White celery
Adds a fresh, aromatic note because it is added near the end.

The step that matters

Heat the water slowly and stew gently for 2 hours. Gentle heat keeps the broth clear and lets the meat become tender. Boiling turns the liquid cloudy and toughens the meat.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, ham, onion, beef, bread, butter, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, ham, onion, beef, bread, butter, 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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