Why it works: Spinach and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 603 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Spinach Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the spinach
Wash and trim the spinach.
Boil the spinach in a saucepan with 3 quarts of boiling water and 3 tablespoons of salt for 3 to 7 minutes until tender.
Drain the spinach, then rinse it with cold water.
Chop the spinach finely.
Press the chopped spinach through a sieve.
Make the soup
In another pot, boil the milk with ½ cup of cold water to prevent burning.
In a separate pan, mix the butter and flour over heat until bubbling.
Gradually add the boiling milk to the butter and flour mixture.
Season the mixture with 1 tablespoon of salt, ½ teaspoon of white pepper, and ¼ teaspoon of grated nutmeg.
Stir in enough spinach to color the soup a delicate green.
Serve
Serve the soup hot.
If preparing in advance, keep the soup warm in a saucepan set in another pot of boiling water.
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.
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Spinach + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together603 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Spinach + flourtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,564 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Spinach
- Provides the green color, vegetable flavor and body of the soup.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the soup and gives it a creamy texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, carrying flavor through the soup.
- Flour
- Cooked with butter to form a roux that thickens the milk.
The step that matters
Adding the boiling milk to the butter and flour. Adding the hot liquid gradually while stirring keeps the flour dispersed, so the roux thickens the soup smoothly instead of forming lumps.
Swap the white pepper
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spinach, milk, butter, flour, nutmeg):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Capersfits better
- White pepperthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against spinach, milk, butter, flour, nutmeg. 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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