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WHitE Soup

A clear veal broth thickened with farina and enriched with milk, seasoned with salt, pepper, onion, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

WHitE Soup

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine the veal bones, minced veal, onion, and parsley with cold water and chicken broth, covering the mixture.

  2. Simmer for three hours until the liquid is reduced to two quarts.

  3. Strain the liquid back into the pot.

  4. Season the strained liquid with salt and pepper.

  5. Boil gently.

Finish the soup

  1. Skim the surface for ten minutes.

  2. Add the milk and boiled farina.

  3. Simmer for another ten minutes.

  4. Take out a cupful of soup.

  5. Pour the cupful over a beaten egg, mixing well.

  6. Return the egg mixture to the soup.

  7. Cover the pot.

  8. Let stand off the fire for two minutes 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.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Veal + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal bones
Release gelatin and flavor into the liquid during the long simmer, giving body to the soup.
Chicken broth
Adds savory depth and liquid base to the soup.
Milk
Adds richness and softness, mellowing the broth's flavor.
Boiled farina
Thickens the soup slightly, giving it a smoother body.
Beaten egg (in the method)
Enriches the soup and thickens it gently when stirred in off the boil.

The step that matters

Adding the egg mixture. Egg proteins set when heated. Tempering the egg with hot soup first and returning it off a strong boil keeps it smooth instead of curdled.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, chicken, milk, pepper, onion):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, chicken, milk, pepper, onion. 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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