Name: Tapioca Cream Soup
Ingredients: 4 cups white stock (or 2 cups stock and 2 cups milk); 2 tablespoons cream or milk; 2 egg yolks; 2 teaspoons fine sago or crushed tapioca; Salt to taste; Pepper to taste

Why it works: Milk and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,399 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tapioca Cream Soup

Ingredients

4 cups white stock (or 2 cups stock and 2 cups milk)
2 tablespoons cream or milk
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons fine sago or crushed tapioca
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Directions

Make the stock

Simmer the stock with onion, carrot, celery, and herbs if it is not well flavored, then strain.

Thicken and finish

Bring the stock to a boil, sprinkle in the sago, and stir until it becomes transparent.
Let the soup cool slightly.
Mix the egg yolks and cream or milk together, then add to the soup and stir until it thickens to the consistency of single cream.
For a thicker soup, mix 1 teaspoon of flour or cornstarch with a little milk and add it with the sago.
Season with salt and pepper to taste, then serve.

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.

Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26,984 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together21,449 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together42,166 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 or tapioca: Swells and turns transparent in the hot stock, thickening the soup.
Egg yolks: Enrich the soup and thicken it gently when stirred in off the boil.
Cream or milk: Adds richness and body, softening the soup's texture.
White stock: Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor and thickening.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk and cream mixture. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat. If the soup is boiling when they go in, they can scramble and curdle, so let it cool slightly first.

“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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Tapioca Cream Soup