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Spinach Soup

Spinach soup made with spinach, béchamel sauce, butter, cream, sugar, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Spinach Soup

Why it works: Spinach and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,400 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Spinach Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the spinach

  1. Wash and pick the spinach.

  2. Boil the spinach until very green.

  3. Strain the spinach and rub it through a wire sieve.

Finish the soup

  1. Add béchamel sauce, butter, cream, sugar, salt, and pepper to the spinach.

  2. Stir well to combine.

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. Spinach + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sauce + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Spinach
Provides the main flavour and green colour, and its puree gives the soup its body.
Bechamel sauce
Adds body and a smooth, thickened texture to the puree.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, softer texture.

The step that matters

Boil the spinach until very green. Brief boiling in salted water sets the chlorophyll bright green. Overcooking turns spinach dull olive and dulls its flavour, so stop once it is just wilted and vivid.

Swap the spinach

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, butter, cream, sugar, pepper. 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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