Name: Tapioca Cream Soup
Ingredients: 1 quart white stock (or half stock and half milk); ½ pint cream (or ⅓ pint milk as a substitute); 3 egg yolks; 1 tablespoon fine sago or crushed tapioca; salt to taste; pepper to taste

Why it works: Milk and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,399 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Tapioca Cream Soup

Ingredients

1 quart white stock (or half stock and half milk)
½ pint cream (or ⅓ pint milk as a substitute)
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon fine sago or crushed tapioca
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Directions

Prepare the stock

Simmer the stock with onion, carrot, celery, and herbs if needed, then strain.

Make the soup

Bring the stock to a boil, sprinkle in the sago, and stir until transparent.
Let the soup cool slightly.
Mix the egg yolks and cream together, then add to the soup and stir until it thickens to the consistency of single cream.
For a thicker soup, mix 1 teaspoon flour or cornstarch with a little milk and add it to the soup with the sago.
Season to taste and serve.

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.

Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together29,399 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26,984 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Cream + peppertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together21,449 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together42,166 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 21,449 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 stock: Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the soup.
Sago or tapioca: Thickens the soup as its starch swells and turns transparent when heated.
Egg yolks: Enrich and thicken the soup as they set gently with the cream.
Cream: Adds richness and body, softening the texture of the soup.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks and cream. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently but can scramble if the soup is boiling. Let the soup cool slightly first so the yolks thicken smoothly into a creamy texture.

“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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Tapioca Cream Soup