Skip to main content
Soup

Sago Soup

A soup made with pearl sago simmered in stock, optionally flavored with Harvey's sauce, cayenne, lemon, sugar, sherry, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Sago Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the sago in several waters to remove dirt.

Cook the soup

  1. Combine the sago with the gravy stock in a pot.

  2. Let it stew gently for 30 to 45 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.

  3. For a thicker soup, add ¼ ounce more sago for each pint of liquid.

Season and finish

  1. Optional: Add Harvey's sauce, cayenne, lemon juice, sugar, and sherry for flavor.

  2. For a white soup, mix cream with arrowroot or equal parts thick cream and new milk.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + arrowroottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pearl sago
Swells as it simmers, thickening the broth and giving the soup its body.
Gravy stock or beef broth
Forms the savoury liquid base that the sago cooks in.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the savoury stock and sherry.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich stock.

The step that matters

Stewing the sago gently and stirring. Sago starch settles and sticks to the bottom of the pot if left unstirred or boiled hard, scorching the soup and leaving lumps. Gentle heat and occasional stirring let the grains swell evenly and thicken the broth smoothly.

Swap the arrowroot

The recipe marks arrowroot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, sauce, pepper, lemon, sugar, sherry, cream):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits about as well
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Arrowrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, sauce, pepper, lemon, sugar, sherry, cream. 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.

More sago soup recipes

Creamy 4Chicken 3German 3 See all 82 →

You might also like

Indian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and SpinachIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and Spinach448 recipesClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd SoupClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd Soup65 recipesMock Bisque SoupMock Bisque Soup51 recipesCream of Asparagus SoupCream of Asparagus Soup42 recipes