Name: White Soup
Ingredients: 4 oz. ground almonds; 1 pint milk; 1 pint water; 1 oz. vermicelli; 2 blades of mace; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Mace and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

In a pot, combine the ground almonds, mace, milk, and water.
Simmer for 30 minutes.
Remove the mace and add pepper and salt to taste.
Stir in the vermicelli and cook gently until soft.
Serve hot.

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.

Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together12,257 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,800 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Milk + macetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,346 recipes

Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).
Almond + peppertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,566 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26,984 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Mace and pepper 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

Ground almonds: Thicken the soup and give it a rich, nutty body as they simmer.
Milk: Forms the creamy base and adds richness and softness to the soup.
Vermicelli: Adds body and starch that softens and thickens the soup as it cooks gently.