Name: On Some Ancient and Modern Soups
Ingredients: a handful of pepper; a handful of potato flour; 33 supposing no stock to be available

Why it works: Pepper and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

On Some Ancient and Modern Soups

Ingredients

a handful of pepper
a handful of potato flour
33 supposing no stock to be available

Directions

Make the broth

Put the remains of the fowls, carrots, onions, sweet herbs, a little bacon, and any bones, veal trimmings, etc., into a saucepan.
Moisten with a quart or so of water.
Let the whole simmer away slowly.
After about three hours’ simmering, take out the pieces of fowl.
Strain the broth in which they have been boiled.
When it is cold, remove all fat from it.
Use it instead of stock.
If wild ducks were treated similarly, do not use cream; beat the yolks of egg with a wine‑glassful of sherry or claret, and use little or no bread crumbs.
Another variation: pound the fowls, bones and all, then pass the result through a sieve, add bread crumbs, or use boiled rice instead of bread crumbs.

Make the white soup

For a white thick soup, boil a few Jerusalem artichokes with salt until done.
Pass the Jerusalem artichokes through a fine hair sieve.
Take as much milk as you want for soup, and boil in it a handful of pepper, some mace, cloves, nutmeg, etc., some parsley, and a small bit of shallot.
When the milk is well flavored, strain it.
Melt a good-sized piece of butter in a saucepan.
Stir into the butter first a handful of potato flour, or corn flour if no potato flour.
Then stir in the milk and the pulp of the Jerusalem artichokes, each in such quantities as will give your soup the

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

622Calories

18 gProtein

2 gFat

134 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 3 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6

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

By Chevalley de Rivaz, Victor. 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.

Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,355 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together50,459 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Potato flour: Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth, body-giving soup base.
Jerusalem artichokes (in the method): Their pulp adds body and a thick, creamy texture to the soup.
Milk (in the method): Forms the liquid base of the white soup and carries the flavourings.