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Cream of Cheese Soup

A creamy soup made with milk, mace, onion, carrot, butter, flour, cheese, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cream of Cheese Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Heat the milk in a double boiler, adding the mace, minced onion, and carrot. Do not boil.

  2. Blend the butter and flour together.

  3. Add the hot milk to the butter mixture, half a cup at a time, stirring constantly and cooking between each addition.

  4. Strain the mixture back into the double boiler.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the grated cheese and stir until melted.

  2. Season with salt and white pepper.

  3. Pour in the beaten egg yolks.

  4. Cook for a moment.

  5. Remove from heat and beat with an egg beater until frothy.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately in hot cups.

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. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  4. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the soup, carrying all the other flavors and textures.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the milk into a smooth, body-rich soup.
Grated cheese
Melts into the base to supply the cheese flavor and a creamy richness.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the soup, adding richness and smoothness when cooked gently.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat; if the soup is too hot when they go in, they can scramble and turn grainy. Keep the heat low and cook only briefly.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, mace, onion, carrot, butter, flour, cheese):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, mace, onion, carrot, butter, flour, cheese. 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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