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Skate Soup

A clear soup made from skate fish, stock, vermicelli, egg yolks, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Skate Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the skate

  1. Clean the skate thoroughly.

  2. Let the skate hang for at least a day, longer in cold weather.

  3. Remove the skin.

  4. Divide the flesh into fillets.

  5. Set the fillets aside.

Make the stock

  1. In a saucepan, combine the bones and trimmings with water, onion, celery, bay leaf, white pepper, and a little salt.

  2. Simmer gently for 1 hour.

  3. Strain the stock back into the saucepan.

Finish the soup

  1. Bring the stock to a boil and add the fish fillets.

  2. Cook slowly for 10 minutes.

  3. Sprinkle in the vermicelli.

  4. Cook for an additional 5 minutes.

  5. Beat the egg yolks and cream together.

  6. Stir the mixture into the soup.

  7. Cook gently until the soup thickens slightly.

  8. Season to taste.

  9. Serve.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  4. Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Celery + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,863 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

Onion and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Skate
Provides the main body of the soup as tender, flaky fish fillets.
Egg yolks
Thicken the soup gently as they set with heat, adding richness.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, silkier body to the soup.
Vermicelli
Thickens the broth slightly as its starch releases during cooking.
Onion
Adds aromatic depth to the stock as it simmers with the bones.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolk and cream mixture into the soup. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if the soup is too hot or boiling. Cooking gently while stirring lets the yolks thicken the soup smoothly instead of setting into lumps.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, egg, cream, pepper. 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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