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Turkish Soup

A simple soup made with stock, rice, egg yolks, cream, salt, pepper, and cayenne 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. In a saucepan, combine the rice and stock and bring to a boil.

  2. Press the mixture through a sieve and return it to the saucepan.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg yolks and mix in the cream.

  2. Add the egg and cream mixture to the stock and rice, cooking for just a moment to avoid curdling.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and a dash of cayenne pepper 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.

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
Thickens the stock and gives the soup a smooth, body-rich texture once pressed through a sieve.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the soup when gently heated, adding richness and a silky texture.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother mouthfeel, softening the soup's flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the egg and cream mixture. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat but curdle if they get too hot. Cook only for a moment after adding them, and avoid boiling, so the soup stays smooth.

“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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