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Bread-and-cheese Soup

A hearty soup made from veal, ham bone, onion, bread, cheese, milk, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,130 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Bread-and-cheese Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine veal, ham bone, onion, and water in a pot; cook slowly for 4 hours.

  2. Strain the mixture, pressing hard to extract liquid, then cool and remove fat.

  3. Season the broth with pepper and salt; bring to a boil.

  4. Add parsley and corn flour (dissolved in cold water); simmer for 5 minutes.

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk in a separate pot, pour it over the beaten eggs, and stir constantly until thickened.

Assemble and serve

  1. In a tureen, place the fried bread-dice and grated cheese; pour the milk and egg mixture over them.

  2. Finally, add the hot soup, stir, and serve.

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. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

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

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

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

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Breaks down during slow cooking to give the broth body and savory flavor.
Eggs
Thicken the milk mixture as they set with gentle heat, adding richness.
Dry cheese
Melts into the hot soup and adds salty, savory flavor.
Bread-dice
Soak up liquid and give the soup a soft, substantial texture.
Corn flour
Thickens the simmering broth as its starch gelatinizes with heat.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softness to the egg mixture.

The step that matters

Stirring the milk and egg mixture until thickened. Eggs set when heated, and if the mixture gets too hot or is not stirred constantly, the proteins can curdle into lumps instead of forming a smooth, thickened custard.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, milk, egg, bread, cheese, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, milk, egg, bread, cheese, 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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