Name: Sorrel Soup Without Imeat
Ingredients: 1 handful of sorrel, washed; 1 handful of chervil, chopped; 1 handful of lettuce, chopped; 1 leek, chopped; 2 tablespoons of butter; 4 cups of vegetable stock or water; 3 or 4 egg yolks, beaten; ½ cup of cream or milk; Coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Sorrel and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 247 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Sorrel Soup Without Imeat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Chop the sorrel, chervil, lettuce, and leeks very fine.

Make the soup

In a pot, stew the chopped vegetables with butter and salt until tender.
Add the vegetable stock or water and let it stew again.
Before serving, stir in the beaten egg yolks and cream or milk, ensuring it does not boil.
Season to taste and serve hot.

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.

Sorrel + cherviltop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together247 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Chervil + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together396 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Sorrel + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together317 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Sorrel + leektop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together112 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Chervil + leektop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together148 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

Sorrel: Provides the bright, sour acidity that defines the soup's flavor.
Butter: Adds fat for a rounded, rich mouthfeel while the vegetables soften.
Egg yolks: Thicken the soup and give it a smooth, creamy texture when gently heated.
Cream or milk: Adds moisture and richness, softening the sourness and smoothing the body.
Leek: Contributes mild onion-like sweetness and aroma as it stews.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks without boiling. Egg yolks thicken by gently coagulating proteins. If the soup boils after they are added, the yolks can scramble and turn grainy, so the soup must stay below a boil once they go in.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sorrel, chervil, leek, butter, egg, cream):

Chivefits better
Shallotfits better
Lettucethe original
Turnipfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sorrel, chervil, leek, butter, egg, 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.

Leek Soup31 recipes

Sorrel Salad9 recipes

Creamy Lettuce Soup8 recipes

Lettuce Soup8 recipes

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Sorrel Soup Without Imeat