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Egg Soup

Egg Soup is a broth made with ham, veal, vegetables, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Egg Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a large pot, combine the ham, veal, carrot, onion, turnip, and enough water to cover the ingredients.

  2. Simmer for 3.5 hours.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. When ready, remove from heat and let cool.

Finish and serve

  1. Add minced lemon and grated peel to the mixture.

  2. Beat the eggs hard and stir them in.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten eggs are stirred in to thicken and enrich the soup as they set.
Lean ham
Slowly simmered, it gives the broth its savory, meaty flavor.
Veal
Simmered for a long time, it adds body and richness to the broth.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp acidity that brightens the rich broth.

The step that matters

Stirring in the beaten eggs. Eggs must be beaten well and added to the soup while it is hot but not boiling. Stirring them in gently spreads the egg into fine strands that set into the broth rather than forming lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, carrot, turnip, parsley, vinegar, pepper):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, carrot, turnip, parsley, vinegar, 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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