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A White Soup

A clear broth of mutton, veal, and gammon, enriched with almonds, cream, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and white pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

A White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine mutton, veal, shank bones, gammon, herbs, lemon peel, onions, mace, white pepper, and water in a large pot.

  2. Boil until the meat separates from the bones.

  3. The next day, remove the fat and clear the jelly from the broth.

Make the almond and veal mixture

  1. Blanch the almonds in a bowl and grind them to a paste with water.

  2. Mince the veal or fowl and mix with the almond paste and stale bread.

  3. Add the thick cream, lemon peel, and powdered mace to the mixture.

  4. Boil for a few minutes.

  5. Add a pint of the prepared soup.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain and serve.

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. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

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

  4. Onion + almondtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,769 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + vealtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Gives the broth its meaty body and rich flavour as it simmers.
Veal knuckle
Adds gelatin from the bones, giving the broth body and a jelly-like richness.
Sweet almonds
Ground to a paste, they thicken the soup and add a smooth, nutty texture.
Thick cream
Adds fat and richness, making the finished soup smooth and velvety.
Stale white bread
Soaks up liquid and helps bind the minced meat and almond paste together.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aroma to the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Boil the almond, meat and bread mixture only briefly after adding the cream. Cream and almond paste can curdle or separate if boiled hard or too long, so a gentle, short boil keeps the soup smooth.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, veal, lemon, onion, mace, almond, bread):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, veal, lemon, onion, mace, almond, bread. 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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