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Soup a LA Reine

A creamy mutton or veal soup with bread crumbs, nutmeg, pepper, and cream, served with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and mutton are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,488 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Soup a LA Reine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Place an old fowl in a stewpan and cover with water.

  2. Simmer for 3-4 hours, adding more hot water if needed.

  3. Add the mutton or veal and onion; boil until a good stock forms.

  4. Skim the stock, let it cool, and strain it.

Finish and serve

  1. The next day, bring the stock to a boil, then add the bread crumbs, nutmeg, pepper, and salt.

  2. Just before serving, stir in the cream.

  3. Serve with toasted bread cut into dice.

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. Bread + muttontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + white peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Bread + nutmegtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,997 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Bread + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,676 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

White stock
Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries all the flavour.
Fine bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and swell, thickening the soup to a light body.
Good cream
Adds fat and richness, giving a smooth, mellow texture.
Neck of mutton or veal
Adds meaty flavour and body to the stock as it simmers.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cream just before serving. Cream is rich in milk proteins and fat, which can separate or curdle if the soup is kept at a hard boil after it is added. Adding it last, over gentle heat, keeps the soup smooth.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, cream, onion, mutton, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, cream, onion, mutton, nutmeg. 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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