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Soup

Cream of Spinach

A spinach soup thickened with butter, nutmeg, salt, sugar, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Cream of Spinach

Why it works: Butter and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Cream of Spinach

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the spinach

  1. Pick, wash and boil enough spinach to measure a pint, when cooked, chopped and pounded into a soft paste.

  2. Put it into a stewpan with four ounces of fresh butter, a little grated nutmeg, a teaspoonful of salt.

  3. Cook and stir it about ten minutes.

Make the soup

  1. Add to this two quarts of strong stock; let boil up, then rub it through a strainer.

  2. Set it over the fire again, and, when on the point of boiling, mix with it a tablespoonful of butter, and a teaspoonful of granulated sugar.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

151Calories
0 gProtein
12 gFat
13 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
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 F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Spinach (in the method)
Forms the green body and flavour of the soup once pounded and strained.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the spinach base.
Strong stock
Provides the liquid that thins the purée into a soup.
Granulated sugar
Adds a little sweetness that balances the savoury spinach and salt.

The step that matters

Stirring in the butter and sugar at near-boiling. Adding fat and sugar just before the soup boils, off the heat's peak, keeps the butter emulsified and glossy rather than separating into greasy droplets. Overheating can break the emulsion.

“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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