Skip to main content
Main

Game Soup

A hearty soup made with partridge or pheasant, gravy beef, bacon, onion, celery, herbs, peppercorns, allspice, and fine sago.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 chopped onion, celery, and herbs; sauté until softened.

  4. Add the partridge or pheasant and gravy beef to the pot.

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

  6. Add the peppercorns, allspice, and fine sago.

  7. Reduce heat and simmer for 1-2 hours until meat is tender.

  8. Strain the soup 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

Partridge or pheasant
Provides the main game flavour and meat for the soup.
Gravy beef
Adds savoury depth and body as it slowly becomes tender in the broth.
Bacon
Its rendered fat adds savoury richness to the base.
Fine sago
Thickens the broth slightly as it cooks.

The step that matters

Simmering the meat. Keeping the heat low so the broth only barely simmers lets the tough meat relax gradually, while a hard boil toughens proteins and cloudies the soup.

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.

You might also like

Roast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCorned BeefCorned Beef87 recipes