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Rich White Soup

A hearty soup made from fowl, veal or calf's feet, seasoned with salt, cayenne, mace, and enriched with bread, egg yolks, almonds, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Rich White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Butter the inside of a soup pot and add the pieces of fowl and veal or calf's feet.

  2. Season the pot with salt, cayenne pepper, and mace.

  3. Cover with water and stew slowly for 1 hour, skimming well.

  4. Keep the pot covered.

  5. Remove the breasts and wings of the fowls.

  6. Strain the soup from the meat.

Make the chicken mixture

  1. Chop the flesh finely.

  2. Mix the chopped chicken with the soaked grated bread, egg yolks, and almonds.

  3. Pound the mixture until well incorporated.

Finish the soup

  1. Stir in the chicken mixture after the soup has reduced to 2 quarts.

  2. Boil the cream or rich milk separately.

  3. Add the hot cream to the soup gradually.

  4. Cover the soup.

  5. Let it simmer for a few more minutes 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.

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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Pepper and mace barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Fowl
Gives the stock its main body and rich chicken flavor as it stews slowly.
Veal or calf's feet
Adds gelatin, which gives the finished soup body and a silky mouthfeel.
Stale bread
Soaked in milk and combined with the meat, it helps thicken and bind the mixture.
Egg yolks
Enrich the chicken mixture and help it bind and set with a smooth, rich texture.
Almonds
Add nutty flavor and body to the mixture as they are pounded into it.
Cream or rich milk
Adds fat and richness, giving the soup a smooth, velvety texture.

The step that matters

Adding the hot cream gradually. Adding cream gradually, with the soup kept hot, helps it blend smoothly. Adding cold or large amounts at once can cause the dairy to curdle or separate.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, bread, milk, egg, almond, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, bread, milk, egg, almond, 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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