Skip to main content
Soup

Vegetarian Cookery

A vegetarian soup made from sweet almonds, milk, celery, onion, hard-boiled egg yolks and white roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Payne, A. G. (Arthur Gay), 1840-1894 · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Vegetarian Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the almonds

  1. Take half a pound of sweet almonds and blanch them, i.e., throw them into boiling water till the outside skin can be rubbed off easily with the finger.

  2. Immediately throw the white almonds into cold water, otherwise they will quickly lose their white colour.

Make the soup

  1. Slice up an onion and half a small head of celery, and let these simmer gently in a quart of milk.

  2. Pound the almonds with four hard-boiled yolks of egg.

  3. Strain off the milk.

  4. Add the pounded almonds and egg to the milk gradually, and let it boil over the fire.

  5. Add sufficient white roux till the soup becomes of the

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

847Calories
29 gProtein
27 gFat
121 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Almond1 almond (1.2g)7
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Payne, A. G. (Arthur Gay), 1840-1894. 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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Provide the main nutty flavour and body of the soup when pounded.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour and thickens with the almonds.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the pounded almonds into the soup.
Butter
Fat used to make the roux that thickens the soup.
Flour
Forms the roux with butter, thickening the soup.

The step that matters

Blanch the almonds, then cool them immediately. Boiling loosens the skins for easy removal, and plunging them into cold water stops cooking so the almonds keep their white colour.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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

More almond soup recipes

Chicken 5White 3 See all 79 →

You might also like

Cream of CeleryCream of Celery37 recipesIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and SpinachIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and Spinach448 recipesClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd SoupClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd Soup65 recipesMock Bisque SoupMock Bisque Soup51 recipes