Skip to main content
Main

White Soup

A clear soup made from mutton, veal, sheep's feet, bacon or ham, cream, almonds, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, boil the mutton, veal, sheep's feet, bacon or ham, bouquet garni, lemon peel, onions, mace, and peppercorns in 3 quarts of water.

  2. Cover and cook slowly until the meat falls apart.

  3. Let the mixture cool overnight, then remove the fat and transfer the jelly to another saucepan, leaving solids behind.

Make the almond paste

  1. Blanch the almonds and grind them to a paste with 1 teaspoon of water.

  2. To prevent the almonds from oiling, mince the cooked veal or chicken and stale bread, then mix with the almond paste.

Finish the soup

  1. Add this mixture to 1 pint of cream, along with the fresh lemon rind and powdered mace, and bring to a boil.

  2. Gradually stir in the warmed jelly, strain through a colander, pressing with the back of a spoon.

  3. Boil together for 15 minutes and season with salt to taste.

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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  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 + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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 flavor and body as it cooks down into jelly.
Sweet almonds
Thicken the soup and add a mild, creamy nutty richness.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, softening the flavor and giving a smooth texture.
Sheep's feet
Release gelatin during long cooking, helping the broth set into a jelly.
Stale bread
Adds body and helps bind the almond mixture into the soup.

The step that matters

Mixing the almond paste with the cream. Almonds can separate and form an oily film when heated, so the paste should be mixed with the minced meat and bread first, then combined with the cream, to keep the soup smooth.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, veal, ham, lemon, onion, 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.

You might also like

Beef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesLemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipes