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Soup a LA Helne

A hearty soup made with ham, chicken, veal, herbs, almonds, bread crumbs, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 9,057 recipes mention both. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Place slices of lean ham on the bottom of a 4‑quart stew pan.

  2. Cut the chicken, veal, thyme, parsley, onions, and mace into pieces and add ½ pint of water.

  3. Cook on low heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.

  4. After 1 hour, pour in the best stock and bring to a gentle boil, then simmer for another hour.

Prepare the soup base

  1. Remove the veal and chicken, strip the meat from the bones, and place the meat in a mortar with the sweet almonds.

  2. Pound the mixture in the mortar until it is fine enough to pass through a tammy.

  3. Transfer the mixture to a 3‑quart soup pot and add 2 quarts of the stock used for boiling.

  4. Add the crumb of 3 French rolls and simmer for 1 hour.

  5. Pass the mixture through a tammy again and stir in 1 pint of boiled cream.

Finish and serve

  1. Place the soup pot in a steamer or a larger pan of hot water and keep it warm on the stove.

  2. Taste the soup and season with salt or a pinch of sugar if desired.

  3. Cut the crusts of the rolls into round pieces and place them in the tureen before ladling the soup.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Chicken + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,808 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Thyme + macetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,113 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Parsley + macetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,268 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Chicken + vealtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Gives the soup its main meat flavour and body as it simmers into the stock.
Sweet almonds
Pounded into the soup, they add richness and a smooth, thickened texture.
French rolls
Their crumb thickens the soup as it simmers, giving it body.
Boiled cream
Stirred in at the end, it adds richness and a silky, smooth mouthfeel.
Onions
Cooked slowly into the stock, they add sweetness and savoury depth.

The step that matters

Passing the soup through a tammy after adding the cream. Cream can separate or curdle if the soup boils after it is added, so the soup should be kept warm rather than boiled. Straining first removes any remaining solids for a smooth texture.

Flavor stand-ins for the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, chicken, veal, thyme, parsley, onion, mace):

  1. Peasbetter flavor fit
  2. Beansbetter flavor fit
  3. Walnutbetter flavor fit
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, chicken, veal, thyme, parsley, onion, mace. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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