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Savoury Sago Soup

A savory soup made with sago, beef tea, egg yolk, cream, salt, pepper, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Savoury Sago Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup

  1. Steep the sago in water for about 1 hour.

  2. Combine the steeped sago with the beef tea and bring to a boil.

Finish and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg yolk and cream with a wooden spoon.

  2. Pour the boiling soup into the egg mixture while stirring continuously.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, then 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. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  2. Beef + teatop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together417 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan (thiamin, meat).

  3. Tea + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together260 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Tea + creamtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together463 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

Sago
Swells as it cooks, thickening the soup into a light, starchy body.
Egg yolk
Enriches the soup and thickens it slightly when gently heated.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel to the soup.
Beef tea
Forms the savory liquid base that carries the flavour of the soup.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling soup into the egg mixture. Adding hot liquid to yolk too quickly can scramble the egg and leave lumps. Pouring slowly while stirring constantly gradually warms the yolk so it blends smoothly and thickens without curdling.

“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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