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Soup

German Soup

A German soup made with veal farce quenelles, cabbage hearts, butter, salt, sugar, and consommé.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

German Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quenelles

  1. Make small puddings from veal farce and boil them in water.

  2. Drain on a sieve.

Prepare the cabbage

  1. Finely chop the hearts of cabbage and blanch in salted water for 10 minutes.

  2. Squeeze out excess water.

Make the soup

  1. In a stewpan, melt butter and add the cabbage with a little salt or sugar.

  2. Soak over low heat for 1 hour.

  3. Add enough consommé to achieve a good consistency.

  4. Bring to a boil, skim off fat, and strain through a tammy.

  5. Boil the soup again and add the quenelles.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Veal + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,381 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Veal + cabbagetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together252 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Cabbage + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,397 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Cabbage + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,037 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

Veal farce
Forms the soft, tender quenelles that give the soup its body and bite.
Hearts of cabbage
Supplies the main vegetable texture and mild, sweet flavour once softened in butter.
Butter
Carries the cabbage in fat, softening it and adding rich flavour to the soup.
Consommé
Provides the liquid base and savoury flavour of the soup.

The step that matters

Soak the cabbage over low heat. Cooking the cabbage gently in butter softens it slowly and draws out flavour without browning. High heat could scorch the butter and make the soup taste bitter.

Swap the cabbage

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, sugar. 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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