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Soup a-LA-Reine

A rich veal and beef broth thickened with almonds, cream, and soaked bread, served with buttered French rolls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 10,172 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the veal, beef, and water in a large pot.

  2. Add a little salt.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Skim off any foam.

  5. Add the onions, carrots, celery, parsnip, leek, and thyme.

  6. Boil until the meat is tender.

  7. Strain the broth through a fine sieve.

  8. Let it sit for 30 minutes.

  9. Skim off the fat.

Make the almond thickening

  1. Boil the cream.

  2. Pour it over the crumbs of the loaf.

  3. Allow it to soak.

  4. Blanch the almonds.

  5. Finely grind the almonds.

  6. Add a little cream to prevent oiling.

  7. Combine the ground almonds, soaked bread, and egg yolks in a bowl.

  8. Mix until smooth.

  9. Heat the broth.

  10. Pour it over the almond mixture.

  11. Strain it through a fine sieve into a saucepan.

  12. Add more cream to achieve a white color.

  13. Heat over low.

  14. Stir until it boils.

  15. Skim off any froth.

Prepare the rolls and serve

  1. Soak the tops of the French rolls in melted butter.

  2. Cook until crisp but not brown.

  3. Place a little hot soup over the roll in the bottom of the tureen.

  4. Pour the hot soup into the tureen.

  5. Serve immediately.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,096 recipes

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

  3. Parsnip + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together270 recipes

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

  4. Parsnip + leektop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Ground almonds give the soup body and a rich, nutty flavour.
Egg yolks
Egg yolks enrich the mixture and help thicken it as it heats.
Cream
Cream adds richness and smoothness and lightens the color of the soup.
French rolls
Buttered, toasted rolls soak up the soup and add a crisp, savory texture.
Beef
Beef and veal slowly release flavor and gelatin into the broth.
Onions
Onions add sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Heat over low and stir until it boils. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if heated too quickly, so gentle heat and constant stirring keep the soup smooth and thickened.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, carrot, celery, parsnip, leek, thyme):

  1. Turnipbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Tomatoabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, carrot, celery, parsnip, leek, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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