Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Cream Soup with Stock
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup base
Combine the white stock and milk in a pot and scald over medium heat.
Stir in the flour and butter until smooth.
Cook the mixture well, stirring frequently.
Finish and serve
Just before serving, add the cream and mix well.
Grate the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs into the bottom of a tureen.
Pour the soup over the grated yolks and serve.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- White stock
- Forms the liquid base that carries the soup's flavor.
- Milk
- Adds body and a mild sweetness to the soup base.
- Flour
- Thickens the soup as it cooks, giving it a smooth body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the flour blend smoothly into the liquid.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a silky texture when stirred in at the end.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Yolks are grated into the tureen, adding richness and a soft texture.
The step that matters
Cook the mixture well, stirring frequently. Flour needs to cook through to lose its raw starchy taste and reach full thickening power. Stirring often prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pot.
“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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