IllustrationWhy it works: Spinach and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 3,400 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Also mentioned in the method: flour
Directions
Prepare the spinach
Wash one pound of spinach.
Cook the spinach without adding water, using the moisture that clings to the leaves, adding one teaspoonful salt and a small sliced onion.
When tender, mash the spinach through a strainer or puree sieve.
Make the soup
Scald two cups of milk in a double boiler.
Melt two tablespoonfuls of butter in a sauce pan.
Stir one tablespoon of flour into the butter.
When blended, stir the mixture into the hot milk.
Cook for ten minutes.
Add one cup of the spinach pulp and the yolk of one egg diluted with a half cup of cream.
Cook for ten more minutes.
Season with salt and pepper.
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. See the original page.
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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.
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Spinach + peppertop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together3,400 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Milk + eggtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together88,465 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + creamtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together29,395 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Spinach + creamtop 9% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together1,129 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Spinach + eggtop 12% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together2,189 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Spinach
- Forms the body and green flavour of the soup once mashed into a pulp.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the soup, which thickens with the flour roux.
- Butter (in the method)
- Enriches the base and carries the flour to form a roux.
- Flour (in the method)
- Thickens the milk into a smooth, body-rich soup.
- Egg yolk
- Adds richness and helps give the soup a smooth, silky texture.
- Cream
- Adds fat and richness, softening the flavour and texture.
The step that matters
Adding the egg yolk and cream. Egg yolk thickens when heated, so it should be diluted with cream and added to the soup off the heat or at low heat, with gentle stirring. Overheating can curdle it into grainy specks.
“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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