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Soup a LA Reine

A soup made from roasted fowl white meat, blanched almonds, veal stock, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,130 recipes. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓

Soup a LA Reine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Pound the white meat of the fowls and the blanched almonds in a marble mortar, adding a little cream while pounding.

  2. Boil the mixture with the veal stock.

  3. Strain the soup.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, stir in the 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. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  2. Meat + almondtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Meat + vealtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Meat + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,248 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Veal + creamtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

White meat of fowl
Provides the main body and savoury flavour of the soup.
Sweet almonds
Add richness and a smooth, thickening body when pounded into the soup.
Veal stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the soup.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Pounding the meat and almonds with cream. Pounding with a little cream helps break the meat and almonds into a fine paste that blends smoothly into the stock. Without this, the soup can turn out grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, veal, cream):

  1. Walnutfits better
  2. Nutsfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, veal, 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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