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Venison Soup

A hearty soup made with venison, ham, onion, celery, mace, butter, and wine.

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 ↓

Venison Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, combine venison, ham, minced onion, and black pepper.

  2. Add enough water to cover the meat and stew gently for 1 hour, keeping the pot covered.

  3. Skim the surface, then pour in 1 quart of boiling water.

  4. Add celery and mace, then boil gently for 2.5 hours.

  5. Stir in butter and wine, and let it boil for an additional 15 minutes.

  6. Serve with the meat in the soup.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  4. Ham + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Venison + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85 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

Venison
Provides the main meat flavor and, as it simmers, gives the broth body and richness.
Ham
Adds salty, savory depth to the broth during the long simmer.
Butter
Adds fat and a silky mouthfeel; flour coating helps it thicken and blend into the soup.
Port or madeira wine
Adds acidity and aromatic sweetness that rounds out the broth's flavor.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, vegetal flavor that builds the soup's background taste.

The step that matters

Stirring in the butter and wine. Butter rolled in flour must be stirred in and kept at a gentle boil so the flour thickens the broth evenly without lumps, while the wine's flavor stays bright rather than cooked away.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (venison, ham, onion, pepper, meat, celery, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against venison, ham, onion, pepper, meat, celery, butter. 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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