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Soup

Plain White Soup

A clear soup made with veal knuckle, fowl or rabbit, bacon or ham, and vegetables, served with vermicelli or macaroni.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Plain White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Soak the knuckle of veal.

  2. Place it in a soup kettle with the fowl or rabbit, bacon or ham, lemon thyme, onions, carrot, turnip, celery, white peppercorns, and mace.

  3. Cover with water and boil for 2.5 hours.

  4. Strain the soup; it should form a jelly.

Rewarm and serve

  1. To rewarm, remove the top fat and sediment, then place the clear soup in a stewpan.

  2. Add previously boiled vermicelli or macaroni until nearly done.

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. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Thyme + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Thyme + turniptop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,352 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 body into the broth, so the strained soup can set to a jelly.
Fowls or rabbit
Adds meaty flavour and additional gelatin to the long-simmered stock.
Bacon or ham
Contributes savoury, smoky depth to the broth.
Onions
Build aromatic sweetness and savoury depth as they cook down into the stock.
Vermicelli or macaroni
Adds starch and bulk, turning the clear broth into a more substantial soup.

The step that matters

Strain the soup so it sets to a jelly. Gelatin released from the bones and connective tissue sets the cooled broth, but only a well-strained, fat-free stock stays clear. Skimming and straining out sediment keeps the soup transparent and firm.

“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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