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Cheese Soup

A creamy soup made with Parmesan cheese, milk, eggs, rice or spaghetti, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Cheese Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Melt the Parmesan cheese with a little hot milk in a large saucepan.

  2. Slowly add 1 quart of hot milk while stirring constantly, ensuring it does not boil.

  3. Gradually stir in the 2 well-beaten eggs to prevent curdling.

  4. Cook for 5 minutes.

  5. Add the salt, pepper, and 1 cup of boiled rice or spaghetti, ensuring the mixture does not boil.

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. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Parmesan cheese + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together879 recipes

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

  3. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

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

  5. Parmesan cheese + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,608 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Parmesan cheese
Melts into the liquid to give the soup its cheese flavour and savoury taste.
Eggs
Thicken the soup gently as they cook, giving it body and a smoother texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the soup, carrying the cheese and adding creaminess.
Boiled rice or spaghetti
Adds bulk and a soft, starchy body to the soup.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the eggs. Adding beaten eggs to hot liquid too quickly can scramble them. Stirring constantly while adding them slowly lets the proteins set smoothly, keeping the soup silky rather than curdled.

“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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