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Fay or Skate Soup

A creamy fish stock soup with vermicelli, egg yolks, and a French roll.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and fish are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 22% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,782 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Fay or Skate Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Boil the vermicelli in the fish stock just before serving.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the cream with the egg yolks.

  3. Stir the cream mixture into the stock off the heat.

Serve

  1. Serve with a small French roll that has been heated in a Dutch oven and soaked in the soup for an hour.

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. Egg + fishtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,782 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Cream + fishtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together937 recipes

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

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Vermicelli
Cooked in the stock, it adds body and a soft, noodle-like texture to the soup.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel to the stock.
Egg yolks
Gently thicken the soup as they warm, and add richness to the cream.
French roll
Soaks up the soup, adding bulk and a soft, bread-like texture.

The step that matters

Stirring the cream mixture into the stock off the heat. Egg yolks scramble if they meet very hot liquid or are heated too fast. Removing the pan from the heat and adding the mixture gradually lets the yolks thicken the soup smoothly.

“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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