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Another White Soup

A clear veal and ham broth with bread crusts, almonds, onions, celery, spices, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,518 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Another White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a large pot, combine 4 quarts of water, the knuckle of veal, ham or bacon, bread crusts, almonds, onions, celery, whole white pepper, mace, parsley, and thyme.

  2. Stew gently for 8 hours.

  3. Strain the mixture and let it cool, then remove all the fat.

Finish and serve

  1. Boil the strained soup, and just before serving, remove from heat and gradually stir in 1 pint of thick cream.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  3. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Almond + celerytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Almond + oniontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,769 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

Knuckle of veal
Releases gelatin and savoury flavour into the long-simmered stock, giving body.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished soup.
Blanched sweet almonds
Contribute body and a mild, nutty sweetness to the soup.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cream. Adding cream just before serving and removing the pot from heat helps prevent it from curdling or separating. Boiling cream for long periods can cause it to break, so it should be stirred in gradually.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, bread, almond, onion, celery, mace. 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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