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Ceeam of Lettuce Soup

A soup made from shredded lettuce simmered in stock, thickened with roux, and finished with milk, egg, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Ceeam of Lettuce Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. Cook the shredded lettuce in the stock for 30 minutes.

  2. Rub the mixture through a colander and return it to the pot.

  3. Stir in the white roux, minced onion, and parsley.

Finish and serve

  1. Heat the milk in a separate vessel and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Whip the egg and stir it into the milk, then pour this mixture into the tureen.

  3. Finally, add the lettuce soup to the tureen and serve.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Lettuce + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Lettuce + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,562 recipes

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lettuce
Forms the body of the soup and gives it its green, vegetal flavour.
White roux
Thickens the soup as its starch swells in the hot liquid.
Egg
Enriches the milk and thickens the soup gently when stirred in.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mellows the soup's flavour.

The step that matters

Stir the egg into the milk. Egg proteins set with heat, so the egg should be whipped and blended into warm milk gradually and not boiled, or it can curdle and turn grainy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lettuce, parsley, milk, pepper, egg):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, parsley, milk, pepper, 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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