Skip to main content
Main

Veal Soup

A clear veal soup made with water, onions, pepper, salt, ham, veal shin, cream, flour, egg yolks, and optional tomatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Veal Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine water, onions, black pepper, coarse sea salt, and ham slices in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture steadily for 2 hours, skimming occasionally.

  3. Add the shin of veal to the pot.

  4. Boil for 2 more hours.

  5. Remove the ham slices and skim off any grease.

Thicken and finish

  1. In a bowl, mix cream with flour and beaten egg yolks.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Gradually add the strained mixture to the pot, stirring well.

  4. Boil for 2-3 minutes to remove the raw taste of the eggs.

  5. For a variation, peel and add the tomatoes, thickening the soup only with flour.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Ham + vealtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Veal shin
Gives the soup its meaty flavour and body as it simmers for hours.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream mixture and enrich the soup's texture when gently heated.
Flour
Thickens the soup and helps the cream blend in smoothly without curdling.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Onions
Build sweetness and savoury depth into the broth during long simmering.

The step that matters

Boil the egg and cream mixture gently after adding it. Egg yolks scramble if overheated, but they must reach a boil briefly to lose their raw taste. Stirring well while adding the strained mixture keeps it smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, pepper, ham, veal, cream, flour, egg):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper, ham, veal, cream, flour, egg. 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 veal soup recipes

White 23Clear 4with Macaroni 3 See all 123 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesVeal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipes