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Soup a LA Flamond

A creamy vegetable soup with turnips, carrots, celery, green onions, lettuce, chervil, asparagus, peas, cream, egg yolks, béchamel, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 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 10,172 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Combine the shredded turnips, carrots, celery, green onions, lettuce, chervil, asparagus, and peas in a stewpan.

  2. Add the butter and a few spoonfuls of stock.

  3. Cook on low heat for 1 hour to sweat the vegetables.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks well in a bowl.

  2. Gradually add the boiled cream while stirring.

  3. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

  4. Mix in the béchamel.

Finish the soup

  1. Remove the soup from heat.

  2. Stir in the egg and cream mixture.

  3. Return to heat until it reaches a boil, stirring constantly to prevent curdling.

  4. Season with salt.

  5. Add a small lump of sugar 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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Lettuce + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together396 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + carrottop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + lettucetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together526 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + cherviltop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together184 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the soup and give it a smooth, rich texture when gently heated.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the soup a smooth, velvety mouthfeel.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour while the vegetables soften in the pan.
Béchamel
Adds body and thickness to the soup base.

The step that matters

Returning the egg and cream mixture to heat. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat but curdle if they get too hot. Stirring constantly and bringing the soup only to a boil helps keep the texture smooth.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, turnip, carrot, celery, lettuce, chervil, asparagus):

  1. Leekbetter flavor fit
  2. Beetrootbetter flavor fit
  3. Endivebetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, turnip, carrot, celery, lettuce, chervil, asparagus. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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