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Turkish Soup

A simple Turkish soup made with rice, stock, egg yolks, and cream, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Turkish Soup

Why it works: Rice and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,379 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Turkish Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Boil the rice and stock together for 20 minutes, keeping the kettle tightly covered.

  2. Press the mixture through a sieve, returning all that runs through to the fire.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the cream mixed with the beaten yolks and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent burning.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, and serve immediately.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Rice + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together21,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Rice + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,350 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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

Rice
Breaks down while simmering in the stock, thickening the soup and giving it body.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the soup when gently cooked, giving it a smooth, creamy texture.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, softening the flavor and smoothing the texture of the soup.

The step that matters

Adding the yolk and cream mixture. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if they get too hot. Stirring constantly over gentle heat keeps the mixture smooth and thickens it evenly instead of leaving lumps.

“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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