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Soup Crecy

A creamy carrot, onion, and celery soup thickened with butter, flour, milk, egg yolk, and cream, seasoned with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Soup Crecy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Wash the carrots.

  2. Scrape the carrots.

  3. Slice the carrots.

  4. Combine the carrots, onion, celery, and bay leaf in a saucepan.

  5. Cover with boiling water and cook until tender.

  6. Remove the mixture from heat.

  7. Discard the bay leaf.

  8. Sieve the vegetables with the cooking water.

  9. Return the puree to the saucepan.

Make the soup

  1. Mix the butter and flour together.

  2. Stir the butter and flour mixture into the puree.

  3. Add the boiling milk.

  4. Stir until thickened.

  5. Season with pepper and salt.

  6. Remove from heat.

  7. Stir in the beaten egg yolk and cream.

  8. Serve immediately.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Carrots
Form the main body of the soup and give it its sweet flavour and orange colour.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the puree into a smooth, velvety soup.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess and loosens the soup to a smooth consistency.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the soup gently when stirred in off the heat.
Cream
Adds fat for a silkier mouthfeel and a richer finish.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten egg yolk and cream off the heat. Egg yolk thickens by setting when heated. If the soup is too hot when it is added, the yolk can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture. Removing the pan from heat first lets the yolk thicken the soup gently.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, celery, butter, flour, milk, pepper, egg):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, celery, butter, flour, milk, pepper, egg. 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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