Why it works: Chestnut and pepper work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 826 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Chestnut Soup
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the chestnuts
Remove the outer peel from the chestnuts.
Pour scalding water over the chestnuts to remove the inner coating.
Place the chestnuts in a saucepan with 1 quart of soup stock and boil for 45 minutes.
Drain the chestnuts.
Rub the chestnuts through a colander.
Rub the chestnuts through a sieve or pound to a paste.
Season the chestnut paste with salt and pepper.
Make the soup
Gradually add the stock in which the chestnuts were boiled.
Add an extra pint of stock.
Boil the mixture once.
Remove the mixture from heat.
Beat the yolks of 2 eggs.
Add the beaten yolks to 1 quart of warm milk.
Whisk the milk into the soup.
Taste the soup for seasoning.
Serve
Pour the soup into a hot tureen.
Serve with 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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Chestnut + peppertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together826 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Chestnut + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together330 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together26,984 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
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Chestnut + eggtop 29% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together660 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chestnuts
- Cooked and pureed to give the soup its body and its sweet, nutty flavour.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich and thicken the soup, giving it a smooth, velvety texture.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and softens the flavour, diluting the soup into a smooth, rich base.
- Soup stock
- Forms the liquid base, cooking the chestnuts and carrying their flavour through the soup.
The step that matters
Whisk the milk into the soup. Egg yolks curdle if they get too hot. Once the mixture is off the heat, add the yolk and milk mixture gradually and stir well so the soup thickens smoothly rather than scrambling.
Swap the chestnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, egg, milk):
- Walnutfits better
- Peasfits better
- Cocoafits about as well
- Chestnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, egg, milk. 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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