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Sago Soup

A soup made with sago, clear brown gravy, soy sauce, ketchup, red wine, cream, and mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and ketchup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,099 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Sago Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat the gravy soup in a pot.

  2. Add sago to the soup and stir until it thickens to a pea-soup consistency.

  3. Season with soy sauce and ketchup.

  4. If making white soup, omit soy and ketchup, and add white wine, cream, and mace instead.

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. Sauce + ketchuptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,099 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Ketchup + creamtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together279 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cream + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes
  5. Red wine + macetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together381 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Clear brown gravy soup
Forms the savory base that carries the flavor of the whole soup.
Sago
Starch granules swell and gelatinize when heated, thickening the soup.
Soy sauce
Adds salty, savory depth and umami to the soup.
Ketchup
Adds sweetness and acidity that round out the savory flavor.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavor to the soup.
Cream
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, softer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Thickening with sago. Sago is a starch that thickens only as it heats and its granules swell. Stir while it cooks so it disperses evenly, and keep it moving to prevent clumps and scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, ketchup, red wine, cream):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, ketchup, red wine, cream. 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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