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Tapioca Cream Soup

A creamy soup made with tapioca, cream, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and turnip are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,418 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Tapioca Cream Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Boil the celery, onion, and turnip in the water for 1 hour.

  2. Strain the vegetables and boil the tapioca in the strained liquid until clear and thick.

Finish the soup

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

  2. Pour the boiling stock into the egg and cream mixture, stirring well.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. If the tapioca rises to the top, the egg is cooked enough.

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 + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,252 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

French tapioca
Swells as it boils, thickening the liquid and turning it clear.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the soup when stirred into the hot stock and cream.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture.
Turnip
Contributes flavour and body to the vegetable stock.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling stock into the egg and cream mixture, stirring well. Stirring keeps the hot liquid moving so the egg yolk warms gradually and blends in smoothly. Pouring it in all at once or without stirring can scramble the yolk and leave lumps instead of a creamy soup.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, celery, turnip, pepper):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, celery, turnip, pepper. 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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