Why it works: Sorrel and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 247 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup
Prepare the consommé as usual and bring it to a boil.
Add the fresh green peas and small white onions.
Add the sprigs of lettuce, sorrel, and chervil.
Boil for one hour.
Stir in the sugar and ground pepper.
Serve
Serve the potage in a soup tureen with small dried croutons.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Sorrel + cherviltop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together247 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Lettuce + sorreltop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together317 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Lettuce + cherviltop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together396 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Peas + lettucetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,293 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Lettuce + peppertop 6% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,037 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Green peas
- Provide the main body and sweet, vegetal flavor of the soup.
- Small white onions
- Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften in the broth.
- Consommé
- Forms the clear liquid base that carries all the other flavors.
- Lettuce
- Adds a mild, fresh vegetable note to the broth.
- Sorrel
- Contributes a bright, acidic, lemony flavor to the soup.
The step that matters
Boil for one hour. A full hour at a steady boil lets the peas and onions break down fully and blend their flavors into the consommé. Boiling too briefly leaves the vegetables firm and the soup thin and under-flavored, while the herbs should be added before boiling so their flavors infuse without overcooking.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (peas, lettuce, sorrel, chervil, sugar, pepper):
- Beetrootbetter flavor fit
- Leekbetter flavor fit
- Asparagusbetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against peas, lettuce, sorrel, chervil, sugar, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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