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Soup

Apple Soup

A soup made from apples, sago, lemon, cloves, cinnamon, and sugar, simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Apple Soup

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Apple Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Peel and core the apples.

  2. Boil the apples with 1 quart of water, 12 cloves, and the sago.

  3. Add the lemon sliced thin and ½ teaspoon of powdered cinnamon.

  4. Sweeten to taste with lump sugar.

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.

  1. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Break down into the soup's body and provide its fruity base flavor.
Sago
Thickens the soup as its starch swells and gelatinizes while boiling.
Lemon
Adds acidity and bright citrus aroma that balance the sweetness.
Cloves
Contribute a warm, pungent aroma as they infuse the liquid.
Powdered cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet spice aroma to the soup.
Lump sugar
Adds sweetness, adjusted to taste.

The step that matters

Boil the sago until fully cooked. Raw sago starch granules stay opaque and chalky. Boiling them in water until the grains turn clear and translucent gelatinizes the starch, which gives the soup its smooth, thickened texture.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, clove, cinnamon, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Quincefits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, clove, cinnamon, sugar. 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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