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Tapioca Cream Soup

A light soup made with chicken or veal stock, tapioca, cream, and egg yolks, seasoned with pepper and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,958 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓

Tapioca Cream Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Pour the stock into a saucepan and bring it to a boil.

  2. Gradually add the tapioca or sago and cook until clear.

Finish and serve

  1. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks with the cream, then add a little pepper and salt.

  2. Strain the egg and cream mixture into the soup.

  3. Stir over low heat for 1 minute to cook the egg, but do not let it boil.

  4. Serve hot.

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. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Chicken + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,241 recipes

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

  4. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Chicken + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,991 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

Tapioca or sago
Thickens the stock as its starch swells and turns the soup clear and slightly viscous.
Egg yolks
Enrich the soup and thicken it when gently heated, adding richness and a smooth body.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the soup a smooth, silky mouthfeel.
Chicken or veal stock
Forms the savory liquid base that the other ingredients thicken and enrich.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat without boiling. Egg yolks begin to set at around 70°C and will curdle or turn grainy if overheated. Gentle heat cooks the yolks smoothly into the soup while keeping it creamy.

“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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