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Sorrel Soup

A soup made from fresh sorrel, butter, flour, broth, milk, egg, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Illustration of Sorrel SoupIllustration

Why it works: Sorrel and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 231 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

  1. Pick, wash, and squeeze dry 1 pint fresh sorrel. Cut into strips.

  2. Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a saucepan, add the sorrel, cover and steam 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  3. Rub in 2 tablespoons flour, add 2 quarts white broth or water, and 1 pint milk.

  4. Season with 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, and 1 teaspoon pepper; mix, and let simmer 20 minutes.

  5. Add 1 gill cream beaten with the white of 1 egg; boil 1 minute.

  6. Beat the yolk with 2 tablespoons milk, and stir it in, cooking 5 minutes longer.

By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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.

The picture is an illustration, not a photo of this recipe · Contact us to use it

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. Sorrel + flourtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together231 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + milktop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together81,222 recipes

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sorrel + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together419 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Flour + milktop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together76,993 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Sorrel
Its leafy body and sharp acidity give the soup its characteristic tang and green flavour.
Butter
Fat that softens the sorrel as it steams and carries flavour through the soup.
Flour
Thickens the broth and milk into a smooth, body-rich soup.
Milk
Adds richness and softens the flavour of the soup.
Egg
The beaten white and yolk enrich and thicken the soup as it cooks.

The step that matters

Stirring in the beaten egg. Egg thickens by setting when heated, so it should go in gradually and not be left to boil hard. Boiling too vigorously can curdle it into lumps and make the soup grainy.

“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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