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Game Soup

Game Soup is a stew made with white meat from game, veal gravy, ham, green onions, pepper, salt, strong gravy, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Game Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. In a stewpan, combine the backs and legs of the game with 1 quart of veal gravy, the slice of ham, green onions, pepper, and salt.

  2. Stew until fully extracted.

  3. Remove the backs and legs, then add 1 pint of strong gravy to the pot.

Make the thickening

  1. Pound the leftover white meat in a mortar.

  2. Pound the yolks of 2 hard-boiled eggs with the pounded meat.

  3. Rub through a fine sieve.

  4. Add the egg mixture to the stewpot and mix well.

Finish the soup

  1. Stir over heat until desired consistency is reached.

  2. If too thick, add more veal gravy.

  3. Season moderately to maintain the game flavor.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Meat + hamtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,095 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Game white meat
Pounded into the soup, giving body and a rich game flavor.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Emulsify and thicken the soup when mixed in and heated.
Veal gravy
Forms the savory liquid base of the soup.
Strong gravy
Adds concentrated meaty flavor and body to the stock.

The step that matters

Stir over heat after adding the egg mixture. Egg yolks thicken as they heat, so stirring over gentle heat keeps the soup smooth and evenly thickened. Overheating can curdle the yolks and leave a grainy texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, veal, ham, pepper, egg):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, veal, ham, pepper, egg. 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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