Why it works: Almond and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
White Soup
Ingredients
Directions
In a mortar, reduce the almonds to a paste with a spoonful of water.
Add the pounded meat and stale bread to the almond paste and mix well.
Finely chop the lemon peel and add it along with the pounded mace.
Pour boiling stock over the mixture and simmer for 1 hour.
Rub the hard-boiled egg yolks into the cream, then stir into the soup.
Bring the soup to a boil and serve immediately.
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.
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Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,130 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Veal + breadtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,056 recipes
Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, veal, bread, lemon, cream, egg):
- Nutmegfits better
- Parsleyfits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against almond, veal, bread, lemon, cream, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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