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Game Soup

A hearty soup made with game meat, beef, bacon, vegetables, herbs, spices, and sago.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,422 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Game Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

  1. In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the bacon and cook until crispy.

  3. Add the gravy beef and brown on all sides.

  4. Pour in the water and bring to a boil.

  5. Add the partridge or pheasant, onion, celery, herbs, peppercorns, and allspice.

  6. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.

  7. Stir in the sago and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

  8. Season to taste and 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. Celery + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,422 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Pheasant + beeftop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together131 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Onion + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,270 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Gravy beef
Browning builds savory depth, and long simmering turns its connective tissue tender in the broth.
Sago
Starch that thickens the simmering broth to a lightly body-rich texture.
Partridge or pheasant
Main game meat that flavors the broth as it simmers.
Bacon
Rendered fat adds savory richness to the pot before the liquid goes in.

The step that matters

Brown the gravy beef on all sides. Searing creates browned flavor through the Maillard reaction. Crowding the pot or skipping the sear leaves the beef gray and the broth flatter tasting.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pheasant, beef, butter, onion, celery):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pheasant, beef, butter, onion, celery. 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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