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Cream of Tapioca Soup

A clear soup made with tapioca pearls, stock, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cream of Tapioca Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tapioca

  1. Soak the tapioca in cold water overnight.

  2. About 30 minutes before serving, cover the soaked tapioca with boiling water.

  3. Add 3/4 teaspoon salt.

  4. Cook until clear but not too long to lose shape.

Make the soup

  1. Bring the stock to a boil.

  2. Add the milk and heat until scalding.

  3. Mix the onion juice and nutmeg.

  4. Add the mixture, butter, and cooked tapioca to the soup.

Serve

  1. Season to taste.

  2. Pour the soup into a tureen.

  3. Sprinkle minced parsley on top.

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. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Parsley + white peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Pearl tapioca
Thickens the soup as its starch swells and turns glossy and clear when cooked.
White stock
Forms the savoury liquid base that carries the other flavours.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a soft, rounded body to the soup.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Onion juice
Adds a mild onion aroma and savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Cooking the tapioca. Pearl tapioca turns clear as its starch gelatinizes, which thickens the soup. If it cooks too long, the pearls break down and lose their shape, so it should be removed once clear but still whole.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, parsley, onion, butter, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, parsley, onion, butter, nutmeg. 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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