Skip to main content
Main

Veal Soup

A hearty soup made with veal knuckle, potatoes, onion, rice, and a milk‑flour sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Veal Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Boil the knuckle of veal in water for 3 hours.

  2. Add the potatoes, onion, and rice, and boil for another hour.

  3. Remove the veal and potatoes from the pot and season the soup to taste.

Finish and serve

  1. Cut the veal and potatoes into small pieces and season with pepper, salt, and a little vinegar.

  2. In a separate pot, combine the milk (or milk and water) with flour and thicken it over heat.

  3. Once it boils, add a small piece of butter and pour it over the veal and potatoes.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together851 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Gives the broth its meaty flavour and body as it simmers for hours.
Potatoes
Break down while cooking and add starch that gives the soup substance.
Rice
Releases starch during simmering, helping thicken the soup.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, creamy sauce when heated.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the thickened sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and a rounded, silky flavour to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Thickening the milk with flour. Flour must be cooked with the liquid over heat so its starch swells and thickens smoothly. Adding it raw or letting the mixture scorch can leave lumps or a floury taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, potato, rice, pepper, vinegar, milk, flour):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, potato, rice, pepper, vinegar, milk, flour. 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.

More veal soup recipes

White 23Clear 4with Macaroni 3 See all 123 →

You might also like

Potato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesRice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipesPotato ChipsPotato Chips53 recipes