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Gopher Soup

A hearty soup made with gopher meat, spices, wine, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Gopher Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Heat the lard in a pot until boiling hot.

  2. Add the flour and cook until nicely browned.

  3. Stir in the chopped onion and fry until brown.

Simmer the soup

  1. Add the gopher pieces and fry for 15 minutes.

  2. Pour in 3 to 4 quarts of boiling water.

  3. Season with thyme, parsley, mace, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice in a tied bag.

  4. Simmer gently for 4 hours, removing the spice bag before serving.

  5. If using gopher eggs, add them 30 minutes before serving.

  6. Just before serving, stir in the Madeira and claret.

  7. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Thyme + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Browned with the lard, it thickens the soup and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
Lard
Fat that carries the onion and flour and helps build browned flavour at the start.
Onion
Fried until brown, it adds sweetness and savoury depth to the base.
Madeira wine
Added at the end, it contributes aroma and a rich, fortified sweetness.
Claret
Added at the end, it adds acidity and fruity depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Browning the flour. The flour must be cooked until nicely browned in the hot fat. Under-browned flour leaves a raw, pasty taste and weak colour, while over-browned flour turns bitter and can scorch.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, onion, thyme, parsley, cinnamon, clove, allspice):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, onion, thyme, parsley, cinnamon, clove, allspice. 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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