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Almond Soup

A soup made from calves' feet stock, blanched almonds, mace, and optional rose water, cream, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Almond Soup

Why it works: Almond and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Place the scraped calves' feet and mace in a porcelain-lined kettle with cold water.

  2. Cover and bring to a boil over moderate heat, then add salt and reduce to a simmer.

  3. Skim the surface and simmer until the meat falls from the bones.

  4. Strain the stock into a bowl and let it cool, then remove the fat.

Finish the soup

  1. Return the stock to the kettle and add the pounded almonds mixed with rose water.

  2. Simmer for 15 minutes, then stir in boiled cream if using.

  3. For mutton or veal, omit cream and mace, and add lemon peel and juice before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Rose + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,174 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Mace + rosetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together498 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Calves' feet
Release gelatin into the stock, giving the soup body and a silky, jellied texture.
Blanched almonds
Pounded into the stock, they thicken it and add a rich, nutty body and flavour.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, mellower texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Skimming and cooling the stock before adding almonds. Skimming during simmering removes foam and impurities that would cloud the soup, and chilling the strained stock lets fat rise and solidify so it can be removed. Leaving fat in would make the soup greasy.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mace, almond, rose, cream):

  1. Raspberryfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mace, almond, rose, 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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