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Bread-and-cheese Soup

A hearty soup made with veal, ham bone, onion, milk, eggs, bread, and cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Bread-and-cheese Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine veal, ham bone, onion, and cold water in a pot.

  2. Cook slowly for four hours.

  3. Strain the mixture, pressing hard to extract liquid, and cool.

  4. Remove the fat from the surface.

  5. Season the broth with salt and pepper, then bring to a boil.

Thicken and finish

  1. Add parsley and corn flour mixed with cold water; simmer for five minutes.

  2. Heat the milk in a separate pot, then pour it over the beaten eggs, stirring constantly until it thickens.

  3. Place bread-dice and cheese in a serving bowl, pour the milk and egg mixture over them, then add the hot soup.

  4. Stir and serve.

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. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Slow cooking releases its flavor and gelatin into the broth, giving body to the soup.
Eggs
Beaten eggs thickened with warm milk add richness and a silky, custard-like texture.
Corn flour
Starch swells in the hot broth, thickening the soup to a lightly body-rich consistency.
Bread-dice
Fried bread soaks up the broth and milk mixture, giving the soup a soft, substantial texture.
Dry cheese
Melts slightly into the hot soup, adding savory, salty flavor and a rich finish.

The step that matters

Adding the milk and egg mixture. Eggs curdle if they get too hot. Pour the warm milk slowly into the beaten eggs while stirring, and keep the mixture below a simmer so it thickens smoothly instead of scrambling.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, milk, egg, bread, cheese, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, milk, egg, bread, cheese, pepper. 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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