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Almond Soup

A creamy soup made with onions, stock, almonds, milk, and optional cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Almond Soup

Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Almond Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Simmer the onion in the stock for 1 hour.

  2. Remove the onion and strain the stock through a fine sieve.

Make the soup

  1. Melt the butter in a pan, add the flour, and blend smoothly.

  2. Gradually add the strained stock while stirring continuously.

  3. Boil for 5 minutes, then add the almonds and milk.

  4. Bring to a boil, season with salt and pepper, and serve.

Serve

  1. If using cream, add it to the soup tureen before pouring in the soup.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Fat that carries flavour and enriches the base before the flour is added.
Flour
Starch that thickens the soup when cooked with the butter and stock.
Almonds
Adds nutty flavour and body to the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the flavour of the soup.
Stock
Liquid base that carries the onion flavour into the soup.
Onion
Gives a savoury, slightly sweet base flavour to the stock.

The step that matters

Gradually add the strained stock while stirring continuously. The flour's starch must be dispersed in the melted butter before liquid is added. Adding stock slowly while stirring lets each starch granule hydrate and swell evenly, which prevents lumps and gives a smooth, thickened soup.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, almond, milk, pepper, cream):

  1. Arrowrootfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, almond, milk, pepper, 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.

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