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Veal Soup

A clear soup made from veal knuckle, boiled, then enriched with egg yolk, sweet cream, butter, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Veal Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the knuckle of veal in 3 quarts of cold water.

  2. Boil slowly until the liquid is reduced by half.

  3. Remove from heat.

Finish and serve

  1. In a tureen, combine the egg yolk and sweet cream. Add the butter and stir well.

  2. Strain the hot soup into the mixture, stirring continuously.

  3. Serve hot, garnished with chopped parsley.

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.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Veal + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,766 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Provides rich flavour and body as it simmers into the broth.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the soup, giving it a smooth, velvety texture.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and softens the soup's texture.
Butter
Adds fat for a rounder, silkier mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Straining the hot soup into the egg mixture. Adding hot liquid too fast, or without constant stirring, can scramble the egg yolk. Stirring continuously while pouring tempers the yolk gently, so the soup stays smooth and thick instead of curdled.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, egg, cream, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, egg, cream, butter. 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.

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