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Almond Soup

A soup made from beef or veal stock, almonds, eggs, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Almond Soup

Why it works: Mace and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,400 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Almond Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Boil the beef or veal, vegetables, and spices in enough water to cover them until the meat is tender and the broth is strong.

  2. Strain the broth.

  3. Return the broth to the pot with the vermicelli and boil until the vermicelli is cooked.

Prepare the almond paste

  1. Blanch the almonds.

  2. Finely pound the almonds, mixing them with a little soup to prevent oiliness.

  3. Gradually add more soup while pounding until smooth.

Finish the soup

  1. Cool the soup slightly.

  2. Mix in the almond paste.

  3. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

  4. Return the mixture to heat. Stir frequently.

  5. Add the cream before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Clove + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,605 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Beef + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Mace + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the soup once pounded into the broth.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Yolks of hard-boiled eggs
Help thicken and enrich the soup, giving it a smoother body.
Vermicelli
Adds starch and substance, giving the soup a light, tender texture.
Lean beef or veal
Builds a strong, savoury broth that forms the base of the soup.

The step that matters

Pounding the almonds with soup. Almonds release oil when crushed, so mixing them with a little soup while pounding helps keep the paste smooth rather than oily or greasy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, clove, almond, egg, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, clove, almond, egg, 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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