Skip to main content
Main

Beer Soup. No. 1

A hearty soup made with stale bread, dried fruit, root beer, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Beer Soup. No. 1

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the chopped bread, currants, raisins, water, cinnamon, salt, and sugar for 30 minutes or longer.

  2. Strain the mixture through a colander.

  3. Stir in the hot cream and egg yolks 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.

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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Currant + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,180 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  5. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

White stale bread
Soaks up liquid as it boils, giving the soup body and a thick, soft texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken and enrich the soup when stirred into the hot liquid.
Hot cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel.
Dried currants
Add sweetness and a chewy texture as they plump in the liquid.
Dried raisins
Add sweetness and a chewy texture as they plump in the liquid.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the fruit and spice flavours.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolks. Egg yolks scramble and curdle if they meet very hot liquid too quickly. Add the cream and yolks gently, stirring constantly, so the soup thickens smoothly instead of turning grainy.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, raisin, cinnamon, sugar, beer, cream, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, raisin, cinnamon, sugar, beer, cream, egg. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesOatmeal BreadOatmeal Bread51 recipes