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White Soup

A creamy soup made with stock, onion, celery, mace, arrowroot, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine the stock, onion, celery, and mace in a pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for 1 hour.

  3. Strain the mixture.

  4. Return the strained liquid to the saucepan.

Thicken and finish

  1. Mix the arrowroot with water until smooth.

  2. Add the arrowroot mixture to the soup.

  3. Stir in the cream.

  4. Let the soup boil for an additional 30 minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + arrowroottop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together114 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + arrowroottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together340 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Celery + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Arrowroot
Thickens the soup into a smooth, glossy body as it heats.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel to the soup.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the soup.
Onion
Contributes aromatic sweetness and depth to the simmered base.

The step that matters

Adding the arrowroot mixture. Arrowroot must be mixed smooth in cold water first, then added to the hot soup while stirring. Added dry or in lumps, it clumps and thickens unevenly. Starch thickens once heated, so the soup should be kept at a simmer while it sets.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, celery, arrowroot, cream):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, celery, arrowroot, cream. 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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