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Soup

Rich White Soup

A veal and fowl soup thickened with bread, almonds, and egg yolks, finished with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Rich White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine veal, salt, cayenne pepper, mace, and water in a pot.

  2. Stew slowly for 1 hour, skimming frequently.

  3. Remove the breasts and wings of the fowl.

  4. Chop the meat finely and return the rest to the pot.

  5. Strain the soup from the meat and fowl.

  6. Reduce the soup to 2 quarts.

Make the forcemeat

  1. Soak the grated bread in warm milk.

  2. Mix the chopped chicken, soaked bread, egg yolks, and almonds in a bowl.

  3. Pound the mixture well in a mortar.

Finish the soup

  1. Stir in the mixture.

  2. Boil the cream or rich milk in a separate pot.

  3. Gradually add the boiled cream to the soup while simmering for a few more minutes.

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 + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

Pepper and mace 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

Veal
Provides the meaty flavor and body of the broth as it stews.
Egg yolks
Bind the pounded mixture and thicken the soup for a smooth, rich texture.
Almonds
Add nutty aroma and a fine, creamy body to the pounded mixture.
Stale bread
Soaked in milk and pounded, it adds body and a soft, thickened texture.
Cream or rich milk
Adds richness, fat and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Gradually add the boiled cream to the soup while simmering. Adding hot cream slowly and while the soup is simmering, rather than all at once, helps it blend smoothly and reduces the risk of the dairy curdling or separating.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, bread, milk, egg, almond, 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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