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Soup a LA Reine

A creamy soup made from stock, bread crumbs, cream, onion, and seasonings, served with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and white pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,375 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. 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 to 4 hours, adding more hot water if needed.

  3. Add about 1 pound of neck of mutton or veal and an onion.

  4. Boil until you have a good stock, then skim and let it cool before straining.

  5. The next day, reheat the stock and add the bread crumbs, nutmeg, white pepper, and salt.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, stir in the cream.

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Onion + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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 its savoury flavour.
Fine bread crumbs
Thicken the soup as they absorb liquid and soften.
Good cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture.

Swap the white pepper

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, cream, onion, 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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