Name: Turkey or Chicken Soup
Ingredients: Bones and scraps from roast turkey, chicken, or game; Cold water; 1 small onion, finely chopped; Pepper, to taste; Coarse sea salt, to taste; 1 cup chopped meat for every quart of broth; 2 tablespoons flour; 2 tablespoons melted butter

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 ↓

Turkey or Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Bones and scraps from roast turkey, chicken, or game
Cold water
1 small onion, finely chopped
Pepper, to taste
Coarse sea salt, to taste
1 cup chopped meat for every quart of broth
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons melted butter

Directions

Make the broth

Separate bones, meat, and stuffing, keeping each by itself.
Break the bones and place them in a soup kettle covered with cold water.
Add the chopped onion, pepper, and salt.
Simmer for three hours, then strain and remove all fat.

Finish the soup

Bring the broth to a boil again, adding 1 cup of chopped meat for every quart of broth.
Thicken the soup with 2 tablespoons of flour mixed with 2 tablespoons of melted butter.

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.

Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Turkey + meattop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together540 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Turkey + buttertop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,592 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Bones: Release gelatin and flavour into the water as they simmer, giving the broth body.
Flour: Thickens the broth when mixed with melted butter and heated, giving it body.
Butter: Carries the flour evenly into the broth and adds richness.
Chopped meat: Adds savoury flavour and substance to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Thicken the soup with flour and butter. Flour should be mixed with the melted butter first so it disperses without lumps. Starch thickens properly only when heated in liquid, so the soup should be kept at a simmer while it sets.

Swap the onion

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

Shallotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, pepper, meat, flour, butter. 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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Turkey or Chicken Soup