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White Soup

A creamy chicken broth soup thickened with egg yolks and mashed potato, served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,756 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-decenal, which smells green, must. The science ↓

White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Beat the egg yolks and cream together in a tureen.

  2. Slowly pour in the boiling chicken broth while stirring.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt.

  4. Serve with croutons.

Thicken with potato

  1. Alternatively, rub the mashed potato with a little cold broth to make a paste.

  2. Stir the potato paste into the boiling broth until well mixed.

  3. Pour the mixture over the cream in the tureen.

  4. Add diced veal or chicken if desired.

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. Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  2. Chicken + vealtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).

  3. Cream + potatotop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Potato + vealtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together343 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Enrich the soup and thicken it into a smooth, creamy body when gently heated.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel to the soup.
Chicken broth
Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries its savory flavor.
Mashed potato
Acts as a starch that thickens the broth and gives it body.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling broth slowly while stirring. Pouring hot liquid into raw egg yolks too fast can scramble them into lumps. Adding it gradually while stirring tempers the yolks so the soup stays smooth and creamy.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, cream, egg, veal):

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Onionfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, cream, egg, veal. 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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