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Soup

Cucumber Soup

A savory soup made with butter, shallots, Jerusalem artichokes, ham, cucumbers, shredded fowl, flour, veal stock, milk, cream, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and jerusalem artichoke share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Cucumber Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter over low heat.

  2. Add shallots, Jerusalem artichokes, ham, and cucumbers; stir for 20 minutes.

  3. Mix in the shredded fowl and flour until well blended.

  4. Pour in the veal stock and boiled milk; stir until it boils.

Strain and season

  1. Strain the mixture into a clean stewpan, skim off fat, and season with salt and sugar.

Serve

  1. In a tureen, place the prepared cucumber pieces.

  2. Mix the cream with the soup and pour it over the cucumbers to 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. Shallot + jerusalem artichoketop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Shallot + cucumbertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together264 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Jerusalem artichoke + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together116 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the base with fat, carrying flavour and giving a smooth mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it cooks, giving it body.
Veal stock
Forms the liquid base, adding savoury depth to the soup.
Boiled milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, softening the soup's texture.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky texture when stirred into the soup.
Cucumbers
Provide the main fresh flavour and tender body of the soup.

The step that matters

Pour in the veal stock and boiled milk; stir until it boils.. Flour needs to be well blended into the liquid and brought to a boil to thicken fully. Stirring prevents lumps and scorching on the base of the pan.

Swap the cucumber

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, shallot, jerusalem artichoke, ham, flour, veal, milk):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Cucumberthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, shallot, jerusalem artichoke, ham, flour, veal, milk. 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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