Skip to main content
Main

Spinach Soup

A soup made with spinach, meat stock, butter, bread, egg yolks, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Spinach Soup

Why it works: Spinach and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,400 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Spinach Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the spinach

  1. Wash the spinach in several waters and carefully pick it.

  2. Chop the spinach coarsely and mix it.

Cook the soup

  1. Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat.

  2. Add the chopped spinach and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

  3. Stir with a wooden spoon, taking care not to let it burn.

  4. Pour in the meat stock and let it simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.

  5. If desired, add butter just before finishing.

Finish and serve

  1. Place thin slices of bread in a tureen.

  2. Pour the boiling soup over the bread.

  3. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks and cream together.

  4. When the soup has stopped boiling, stir in the egg and cream mixture.

  5. Let it sit for 5 minutes off the heat.

  6. Serve 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Spinach + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Meat + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,924 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

Egg yolks
Enrich the soup and thicken it slightly when gently heated with cream.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth texture to the soup.
Spinach
Provides the main flavour and green colour of the soup.
Meat stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the soup.
Bread
Soaks up the broth, giving body and a softer texture.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg and cream mixture off the boil. Egg yolks scramble if the soup is boiling when they are added, leaving grainy specks. Once the soup has stopped boiling, the yolks thicken it gently and smoothly.

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, butter, pepper, bread, egg, cream):

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, pepper, bread, egg, cream. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipesMeat CroquettesMeat Croquettes52 recipes