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A White Soup

A clear soup made from veal, ham, anchovies, onions, celery, and sweet herbs, finished with almonds, cream, and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

A White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a large pot, combine water, veal, ham, anchovies, peppercorns, onions, sweet herbs, and celery.

  2. Stew the mixture until the soup is flavorful.

  3. Strain the soup through a fine sieve into an earthen pot and let it sit overnight.

Finish and serve

  1. The next day, skim off the fat and pour the soup into a stewpan.

  2. Add the pounded almonds, bring to a gentle boil, then strain through a fine sieve.

  3. Stir in the cream and egg yolk before serving hot.

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. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Celery + almondtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  4. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  5. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Gives the stock body and a rich, savoury flavour as it simmers.
Blanched almonds
Pounded into the soup, they thicken it slightly and give a creamy, nutty body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the soup when stirred in, adding smoothness and body.
Anchovies
Contribute a deep, savoury background flavour that rounds out the stock.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cream and egg yolk. Egg yolk can curdle or turn grainy if the soup is boiling when it is added. Keep the soup hot but not boiling, and stir steadily while adding the yolk and cream.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, onion, celery, cream, egg):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, onion, celery, cream, 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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