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Soup

Cream of Lettuce

A creamy soup made from fresh lettuce, onion, rice, milk, butter, and seasonings, finished with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cream of Lettuce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lettuce

  1. Wash and drain the lettuce, then chop it finely with the onion.

Make the soup

  1. In a saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons of butter and add the chopped lettuce and onion. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly.

  2. Add the rice and milk, then bring to a boil. Cook for 20 minutes until the rice is tender.

  3. Remove from heat and press the mixture through a puree sieve using a potato masher, then strain through a fine sieve for smoothness.

  4. Season with salt, cayenne pepper, and sugar.

  5. In a fresh saucepan, rub together the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and cornstarch, then stir into the soup.

  6. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and stir in the whipped cream.

Serve

  1. Serve with or without fried croutons.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Lettuce + ricetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together520 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Lettuce
Forms the bulk of the soup and gives it its green flavour and body when puréed.
Butter
Softens the lettuce and onion and adds richness to the finished soup.
Rice
Thickens the soup as it cooks and helps give it a smooth, body-rich texture.
Milk
Provides the liquid base and creaminess of the soup.
Cornstarch
Thickens the soup to a smoother, more velvety consistency.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel when stirred in off the heat.

The step that matters

Adding the whipped cream. Whipped cream should be stirred in after the soup comes off the heat. Overheating it can cause the cream to separate or lose its airy texture, and it thins the finished soup's silkiness.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, rice, milk, pepper, sugar, cream):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, rice, milk, pepper, sugar, cream. 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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