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Cream of Cheese Soup

A creamy soup made with milk, onion, carrot, mace, flour, olive oil, Parmesan cheese, egg yolks, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and carrot are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cream of Cheese Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the milk, onion, carrot, and mace in a double boiler.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour with the olive oil until smooth.

  4. Remove the vegetables and mace from the boiling milk.

  5. Add the flour and oil mixture to the milk, stirring until it thickens.

  6. Stir in the grated Parmesan cheese for three minutes.

  7. Add the beaten egg yolks, salt, and cayenne pepper to taste.

  8. Serve immediately; do not reheat.

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. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Carrot + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,861 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Olive + parmesan cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,029 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries the cheese and flavor.
Flour
Thickens the milk as it heats, giving the soup body.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty flavor and richness to the soup.
Egg yolks
Enrich the soup and add body and smoothness when stirred in.
Olive oil
Adds fat that blends with the flour and carries flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks can scramble if the soup is too hot when they go in. Adding them off the heat or at low heat, while stirring, keeps the soup smooth and thickened.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, onion, carrot, flour, olive, parmesan cheese, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, onion, carrot, flour, olive, parmesan cheese, egg. 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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