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Stock and Clear Soups

A clear soup made by thickening stock with cornflour and tapioca or sago, optionally sweetened and seasoned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Stock and Clear Soups

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, bring 1 quart of vegetable or fish stock to a simmer.

  2. Mix 1 tablespoon of cornflour with a little cold water to make a smooth paste, then stir it into the stock.

  3. Add 2 tablespoons of tapioca or sago and cook until slightly thickened.

  4. If desired, add a pinch of sugar to balance flavors.

  5. Season with a clove, basil, marjoram, or thyme as appropriate for your soup type.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Basil + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Basil + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  4. Clove + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Cornflour
Thickens the stock into a light, clear body as it cooks.
Tapioca or sago
Adds body and a slight thickening as it cooks in the stock.

The step that matters

Stirring the cornflour paste into the stock. Cornflour must be mixed smooth with cold water first; added dry or lumpy it clumps and does not thicken evenly. Starch thickens properly only once it reaches a simmer and is stirred through.

Swap the clove

The recipe marks clove as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, sugar, basil, marjoram, thyme):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Fennelfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, sugar, basil, marjoram, thyme. 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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