Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Clear Soup with Croutons
Ingredients
Directions
Make the croutons
Cut the stale bread into small squares.
Fry the bread squares in good dripping or butter until light brown.
Shake off excess fat using a colander.
Spread the croutons on tissue paper over a hot plate for 5 minutes.
Serve
Place the croutons in a tureen and pour in the boiling consommé.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Stale bread
- Dry, firm bread holds its shape when fried and gives the croutons a crisp texture.
- Dripping or butter
- Fat conducts heat into the bread, browning its surface and adding rich flavour.
- Consommé
- Clear, boiling stock forms the soup base and softens the croutons slightly as they sit.
The step that matters
Shaking off excess fat. Fat left on the fried bread makes the croutons greasy and can cloud or grease the clear consommé. Draining them well keeps the soup clean and the croutons crisp.
“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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