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White Soup

A creamy white soup made with almonds, veal or fowl, cream, lemon rind, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Heat the white stock gently in a stewpan.

  2. Blanch the almonds and pound them to a paste with a little water.

  3. Mince and pound the veal or fowl with the almond paste.

  4. Add the bread-crumbs and powdered mace.

  5. Stir the smooth mixture gradually into the cream.

  6. Add the stock.

  7. Add the lemon rind.

Simmer and serve

  1. Simmer for a few minutes.

  2. Adjust the thickness with more stock to the consistency of cream.

  3. Simmer gently for 30 minutes.

  4. Remove the lemon rind.

  5. Serve with toasted sippets.

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. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Veal + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,056 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-3-hexenol (green, grassy).

  5. Almond + breadtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together858 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).

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

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Pound into a paste that adds body and a rich, nutty flavour to the soup.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel to the soup.
Veal or fowl
Pounded into the base to add body and savoury meaty flavour.
Bread-crumbs
Help thicken the soup and give it a smooth, body-building texture.
White stock
Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries its flavour.

The step that matters

Stir the smooth mixture gradually into the cream. Adding the paste slowly and stirring constantly lets it disperse evenly, so the soup stays smooth rather than lumpy or curdled.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, veal, bread, cream, lemon):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, veal, bread, cream, lemon. 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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Stock 28Swiss 18Westerfield 14Veal 5Rich 4Plain 3 See all 83 →

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