Why it works: Watercress and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 340 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Watercress Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the watercress
Wash and drain the watercress thoroughly.
Break up long sprigs of watercress.
Make the soup
Place watercress in an enamelled saucepan with white stock and simmer until almost dissolved.
Thicken the soup with flour.
Stir in cream or butter and serve with toast sippets.
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.
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Watercress + flourtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together340 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Watercress + creamtop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together211 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Watercress
- Provides the main flavour and bulk, breaking down into the soup as it simmers.
- White stock
- Forms the liquid base that carries the soup's flavour and body.
- Flour
- Thickens the stock so the soup becomes smooth and velvety rather than thin.
- Heavy cream or butter
- Adds fat for a rounder, richer mouthfeel and a silkier finish.
The step that matters
Thicken the soup with flour. Flour must be cooked into the hot stock so its starch swells evenly. Added raw or in lumps, it stays grainy and the soup turns out uneven in texture.
“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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