Why it works: Almond and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,437 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-methylbutanol, which smells malty, whiskey. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the veal
Cut the veal into thin slices and break the bone into small pieces.
Place the meat and bone in a large jug, adding the sweet herbs and mace on top.
Pour 4 quarts of boiling water over the mixture.
Set the jug over a slow fire and let it sit overnight to settle.
Reduce and clarify
Transfer the mixture to a stewpan and simmer until reduced to 2 quarts, skimming off scum and fat as it rises.
Strain the soup into a large basin and let it sit for 2 hours to settle.
Pour the clear soup into a clean stewpan, discarding the sediment.
Finish
Before serving, add 3 ounces of boiled rice or 2 ounces of vermicelli.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Almond + ricetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,437 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).
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Mace + ricetop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together932 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Veal + macetop 8% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together3,761 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Veal + ricetop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together1,117 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Mace + almondtop 11% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together1,010 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Leg of veal
- Provides the meat and bone whose flavour and gelatine build the body of the broth.
- Sweet almonds
- Blanched and beaten fine, they add richness and a mild nutty body to the soup.
- Boiled rice or vermicelli
- Starch added just before serving that gives the soup substance and a soft bite.
The step that matters
Skimming during reduction. Scum and fat rise to the surface as the soup simmers. Removing them keeps the broth clear and stops off-flavours from being reabsorbed, so skimming should be done steadily throughout.
Flavor stand-ins for the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, mace, rice):
- Walnutbetter flavor fit
- Peasbetter flavor fit
- Beansabout as good a flavor fit
- Almondthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, mace, rice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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