Name: Turkey Soup
Ingredients: 2 quarts white second stock; remains of a cold roast turkey; 2 ounces cooked macaroni; 1 ounce rice flour; 1 small onion, chopped; 1 bay leaf; 1 small blade of mace; salt to taste; pepper to taste

Why it works: Rice and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Turkey Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Cut the turkey remains and bones into small pieces.
Place them in a stewpan with the onion, bay leaf, mace, and a little salt and pepper.
Add the stock and bring to a boil.

Simmer and strain

Simmer for 30 minutes, then strain the soup.

Finish and serve

Return the liquid to the pan, add the macaroni, and cook until tender.
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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Turkey + peppertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,636 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,257 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

White second stock: Forms the liquid base that carries the soup's flavour and body.
Cooked macaroni: Adds bulk and a soft, starchy texture to the finished soup.
Rice flour: Thickens the soup slightly as its starch swells in the hot liquid.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, rice, flour, onion, pepper):

Turmericfits better
Thymefits better
Celeryfits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, rice, flour, onion, 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.