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Soup

Soup Accompaniments

Recipes for dumplings, egg noodles, bread croutons and toast sticks served with soup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mendelssohn Club (Rockford, Ill.) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Soup Accompaniments

Ingredients

Directions

Make dumplings

  1. Scald 1 cup milk and 1 tablespoon butter.

  2. Stir 1 cup flour into this, beating continually so that it does not become lumpy.

  3. Cook until the mixture loosens itself from the kettle.

  4. Allow this to cool somewhat.

  5. Add 1 well beaten egg and season to taste with salt and nutmeg.

  6. Beat the very stiff mixture thoroughly.

  7. With a tablespoon, drop small dumplings into boiling soup stock. When they rise to the top of the kettle, they are done.

Make egg noodles

  1. Add salt and flour to the beaten egg to make a stiff dough.

  2. Roll out on a floured board as thin as possible and cover for about 1/2 hour.

  3. Cut in strips, or roll the sheet and slice off as thin as possible.

  4. Toss on board and let dry.

  5. Add to soup and boil 20 minutes.

Make drop noodles

  1. Beat 1 egg, 1 tablespoon water, salt, 2 tablespoons flour and a large pinch baking powder together until smooth.

  2. Drop from a spoon into hot soup in small quantities.

  3. Let boil a few minutes and serve at once.

Make croutons

  1. Spread thin bread with butter and cut into small cubes (the butter may be omitted).

  2. Place in a pan and set in the oven until dry and golden brown, stirring occasionally.

  3. Cut thin slices of bread 1/4 inch thick, cutting off crusts.

  4. Cut into oblong pieces 1 inch wide and 4 inches long.

  5. Toast carefully in the oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

796Calories
28 gProtein
27 gFat
109 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 7 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Mendelssohn Club (Rockford, Ill.). 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. See the original page.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms a thick starch paste or dough that gives the garnishes their body and structure.
Egg
Binds the dough or batter and helps hold the dumplings and noodles together.
Milk
Provides the liquid that is cooked with flour into a smooth, stiff base.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and flavor in the dumpling base and croutons.
Baking powder (in the method)
Releases gas when heated, helping the drop noodles puff and turn lighter.

The step that matters

Stir the flour into the hot milk continually. Starch granules clump when they hit hot liquid without constant stirring. Steady beating disperses them so the paste cooks smooth rather than lumpy.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, flour, egg):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Capersfits less well
  4. Parsleyfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, flour, egg. 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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