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White Soup

A creamy chicken soup thickened with biscuits, eggs, and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and biscuit match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 388 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the chicken

  1. Cut up the chicken.

  2. Rub a soup kettle with butter.

  3. Add the chicken, ½ teaspoon salt, cayenne pepper, and mace.

  4. Cover with water.

  5. Stew slowly until done.

  6. Skim frequently.

  7. Remove the breasts and wings and chop them finely.

  8. Steep the remainder of the chicken slowly.

Make the paste

  1. Soak the biscuits in 1 cup of new milk.

  2. Chop the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs.

  3. Chop the almonds finely.

  4. Pound the chicken to a smooth paste.

  5. Add the soaked biscuits and eggs gradually.

  6. Strain the chicken broth to ensure you have 1 quart.

  7. Pour the broth gradually into the paste while stirring.

Finish and serve

  1. Bring less than 1 quart of cream or milk to a boil.

  2. Add the boiled cream or milk gradually to the mixture.

  3. Return the entire mixture to the pot.

  4. Let it simmer for a few minutes.

  5. Serve hot.

  6. Add a small piece of butter if desired for richness.

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 + biscuittop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together388 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Pepper + biscuittop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  4. Cream + biscuittop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 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

Chicken
Forms the main body of the soup once cooked and pounded into a paste.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and help thicken the soup as they blend into the paste.
Biscuits
Soaked in milk, they add body and help thicken the soup.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and a smooth, rich texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Adding the broth and cream gradually. Pouring liquid into the paste slowly while stirring lets it blend evenly and prevents lumps, giving a smooth texture.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, almond, egg, cream, biscuit, milk):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, almond, egg, cream, biscuit, milk. 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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