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Squash Soup

A creamy soup made from summer squash, butter, onion, stock, cream, and egg yolks, served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Squash Soup

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Squash Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Peel and slice the squashes.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the squashes, butter, sliced onion, pepper, salt, and ½ pint of stock.

  3. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

  4. Press the mixture through a fine sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Add 1 quart of boiling stock and ½ pint of cream to the sieve mixture.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a double boiler.

  3. Season to taste.

  4. Heat until very hot.

  5. Pour the soup into a tureen over the well-beaten yolks of 2 eggs.

  6. Serve with croutons.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Onion and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 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

Summer squashes
Form the main body of the soup and give it its bulk and flavour.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the softened vegetables.
Onion
Softens during simmering and adds savoury depth to the soup.
Cream
Adds fat and smoothness, giving the finished soup a silky texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the soup gently when stirred into the hot liquid, adding richness.
Stock
Provides the liquid base and savoury seasoning for the soup.

The step that matters

Pour the soup over the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently but can scramble if the soup is too hot or added too quickly. Stir the yolks well first and pour the soup in slowly so they thicken smoothly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, cream, egg):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, cream, 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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