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Spring Soup

A veal soup with calves' feet, ham, peas, asparagus, spinach juice, and butter rolled in flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and spinach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 274 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Spring Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Break the veal bones and cut the veal into pieces.

  2. Combine veal and water in a soup pot with calves' feet and ham (or salt and cayenne).

  3. Simmer over moderate heat for several hours, skimming regularly, until the veal is tender.

  4. Strain the soup and refrigerate if not using immediately.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Boil the green peas and asparagus tops until tender.

  2. Pound spinach to extract juice.

Finish the soup

  1. Reheat the stock, add peas, asparagus, spinach juice, and butter rolled in flour.

  2. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and serve in a tureen.

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. Asparagus + spinachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together274 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Peas + asparagustop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Pepper + spinachtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Peas + spinachtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together550 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Pepper + asparagustop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 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

Veal knuckle
Releases gelatin and flavour into the water during long simmering, giving the stock body.
Calves' feet
Their collagen dissolves into the stock, adding richness and a silky body.
Fresh green peas
Provide sweetness and a fresh, tender texture in the finished soup.
Asparagus tops
Add a green, grassy flavour and tender bite to the soup.
Raw spinach juice
Adds color and a fresh, green flavour to the soup.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel; flour rolled in it lightly thickens the soup.

The step that matters

Adding the butter rolled in flour. Flour mixed with butter thickens the soup only when it is heated and stirred, so the soup should be brought to a boil to cook out the raw flour taste and reach full body. Adding it to cold stock can leave lumps.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, pepper, asparagus, spinach, butter, flour):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Lentilsfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, pepper, asparagus, spinach, butter, flour. 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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