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Cream of Cheese Soup

A creamy soup made with milk, butter, flour, onion juice, carrot, cheese, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cream of Cheese Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Heat the milk in a saucepan, but do not scald it.

  2. In another saucepan, rub together the butter, flour, onion juice, and chopped carrot.

  3. Gradually add the hot milk to the mixture, stirring constantly.

  4. Strain the mixture and return it to a double boiler.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the grated cheese and stir until melted.

  2. Beat the egg yolks and add them to the soup, mixing well.

  3. Whip the soup with an egg beater until frothy and serve immediately.

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. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  5. Milk + cheesetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base of the soup, which the roux thickens into a creamy body.
Butter
Enriches the soup with fat and carries flavor through the roux.
Flour
Thickens the soup into a smooth, creamy texture when cooked with the butter.
Grated cheese
Adds rich savory flavor and body as it melts into the soup.
Eggs
Egg yolks enrich the soup and add body and smoothness.

The step that matters

Add the hot milk gradually. Adding hot milk slowly while stirring constantly keeps the flour and butter mixture smooth, so lumps do not form and the soup thickens evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, carrot, butter, flour, pepper, cheese, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, carrot, butter, flour, pepper, cheese, 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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