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Soup

Soup Des Galles

A clear soup made by boiling veal knuckle, beef bones, pork rinds and calf's head, finished with sherry, lemon juice and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 24 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 5,873 recipes mention both. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Soup Des Galles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Add to the liquor in which a knuckle of veal has been boiled the usual time for table as much water as will make altogether six quarts.

  2. Stew in it gently sixpennyworth of beef bones and sixpennyworth of pork-rinds.

  3. When the boiling is somewhat advanced, throw in the skin of a calf's head.

  4. In an hour afterwards, or when it is quite tender, lift the calf's head skin out and set it aside till wanted.

  5. Slice and fry four large mild onions.

  6. Stick another eight or ten cloves into the onions.

  7. Put the onions into the soup after it has stewed from six to seven hours.

  8. Continue the boiling for two or three hours longer.

  9. Strain off the soup and let it remain until perfectly cold.

  10. When wanted for table, take the soup quite clear from the fat and sediment.

Finish and serve

  1. Heat it anew with the skin of the calf's head cut into dice, three ounces of loaf sugar, four tablespoonsful of strained lemon-juice, two of soy, and three wineglassesful of sherry.

  2. Give it one boil, skim it well, and serve it as hot as possible.

  3. Add salt sparingly in the first instance on account of the soy.

  4. Add a proper seasoning of cayenne or pepper.

By Eliza Acton. 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.

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. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + carrottop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head skin (in the method)
Gives body and a gelatinous richness to the broth as it cooks.
Loaf sugar
Adds a little sweetness that rounds out the sharp and savoury flavours.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich broth and balances the sherry.
Sherry
Adds aroma and a mellow, slightly sweet depth to the finished soup.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and savoury depth as they cook slowly into the stock.

The step that matters

Clear the soup before reheating. Removing the fat and sediment once the stock is cold keeps the soup clear and prevents a greasy, cloudy result when it is reheated and served.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, bread, clove, lemon, sherry, carrot, egg):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Leekbetter flavor fit
  3. Shallotbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, bread, clove, lemon, sherry, carrot, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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