Skip to main content
Main

Turkey Soup

A clear soup made from cold turkey, ham, vegetables, and tapioca or semolina.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Turkey Soup

Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Turkey Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Cut the turkey into pieces and place in a saucepan with water, using 1 pint for every pound of meat and bones, plus 1 quart extra.

  2. Add the sliced vegetables, pepper, and salt.

  3. Boil gently for 3 hours, then strain the soup.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the soup to the saucepan and bring to a boil.

  2. Sprinkle in the crushed tapioca or semolina and cook gently, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes.

  3. Before serving, add finely chopped parsley.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey remains
Provides the meat and bones that flavour the broth as they simmer.
Tapioca or semolina
Swells during gentle cooking to thicken the soup body.
Celery
Adds aromatic flavour to the broth during the long simmer.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and body to the broth as it cooks.
Leek
Adds a mild onion-like aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Keeping the simmer gentle. A hard boil over the three-hour simmer can cloud the broth and toughen the meat. Gentle heat keeps the soup clear and tender, and it also prevents the starch from clumping and scorching on the base of the pan when it is added later.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, ham, celery, carrot, turnip, leek, semolina):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, ham, celery, carrot, turnip, leek, semolina. 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.

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesTurnip SoupTurnip Soup43 recipesLeek SoupLeek Soup31 recipes