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Soup

White Velvet Soup

A clear soup made from simmered hen, onion, cloves, celery, parsley, chicken breast, blanched almonds, cream, salt, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

White Velvet Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Place the hen in a saucepan with 3 pints of cold water, cover, and simmer for 2 hours.

  2. During cooking, add the onion and cloves.

  3. Once the chicken is tender, strain the soup.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the celery and parsley, cover, and steam until the celery is tender.

  2. Strain again and add the chopped chicken breast and blanched almonds.

  3. Stir in the cream, and season with salt and cayenne pepper.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  5. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Hen
Slow simmering releases flavour and gelatin into the water, forming the body of the stock.
Chicken breast
Finely chopped, it adds savoury flavour and a soft, fine texture to the soup.
Blanched almonds
Chopped almonds add body, a mild nutty flavour and a slightly thickened texture.
Cream
Adds fat for a rich, smooth, velvety mouthfeel and mellows the seasoning.
Celery
Steaming softens it, releasing its aromatic flavour into the soup.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, clove, celery, parsley, chicken, cream, pepper):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, clove, celery, parsley, chicken, cream, pepper. 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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