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Macaroni Soup a LA Reine

A creamy macaroni soup made with white gravy, velouté, eggs, and double cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Macaroni Soup a LA Reine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the macaroni

  1. Cook macaroni until tender.

  2. Strain the macaroni and place it in cold water with ice.

  3. Cut the macaroni into one-inch lengths.

Make the soup

  1. Place the macaroni in a stewpan with white gravy.

  2. Add velouté sauce.

  3. Heat the mixture until boiling.

Enrich and finish

  1. Separate yolks from whites of eggs.

  2. Check the freshness of the eggs.

  3. Mix yolks with double cream, salt, and sugar.

  4. Whisk and strain the mixture through a sieve.

  5. Strain out about one pint of the soup when it is hot.

  6. Mix the strained portion with the egg and cream mixture.

  7. Pour the mixture back into the soup.

  8. Stir gently until the soup is nearly boiling.

  9. Remove the soup from heat when the eggs begin to set.

  10. Stir for five minutes before serving.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sauce + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Macaroni (in the method)
Provides the main body of the soup and a tender, chewy texture.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the soup as they set, giving it a smooth, velvety body.
Double cream
Adds richness and fat, softening the flavour and smoothing the texture.
Velouté sauce
Forms the thickened base that gives the soup body and a silky mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Remove the soup from heat when the eggs begin to set. Egg yolks thicken from gentle heat but curdle and turn grainy if overheated. Stirring gently and stopping as soon as the soup thickens keeps it smooth.

“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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