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Soup Puree of Leeks, Viennoise

A creamy leek puree soup made with butter, broth, cream, egg yolks, and parsley, served with fried bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Soup Puree of Leeks, Viennoise

Ingredients

Directions

Make the leek base

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and lightly fry the sliced leeks without browning them.

  2. Add 1 to 2 quarts of broth and cook until the leeks are well cooked.

  3. Stir in 3 quarts of thickened chicken or veal broth.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a pinch of sugar, then add the faggot of parsley.

  5. Let it cook slowly for 25 minutes.

  6. Remove the faggot, skim off the grease, and strain the soup through a fine sieve.

  7. Return the soup to the saucepan to keep warm.

Finish and serve

  1. In a bowl, mix the cream with the egg yolks and 2 tablespoons of butter until smooth.

  2. Stir the mixture into the soup until the butter melts.

  3. Add chopped chives and serve with fried bread crumbs on the side.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Leek + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together759 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Leek + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together152 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Leeks
Provide the main body and mild onion-like sweetness that flavours the soup.
Egg yolks
Thicken the soup and give it a smooth, rich texture when gently heated.
Cream
Adds richness and body, softening the soup's flavour and texture.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour, helping to cook the leeks gently and enrich the finish.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg mixture into the soup. Egg yolks can scramble if the soup is too hot. Keep the soup warm, not boiling, and stir steadily so the yolks thicken it smoothly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (leek, butter, chicken, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, cream):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against leek, butter, chicken, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, 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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