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Veal Soup

A hearty veal broth thickened with cream and egg yolks, served with almonds and vermicelli.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 485 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Veal Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, combine veal, water, salt, onions, white pepper, and mace. Bring to a boil and simmer for at least 5 hours.

  2. After 5 hours, strain the broth and return it to the pot.

Finish and serve

  1. Add cream and simmer for a few minutes.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and mix with half a pint of the hot soup. Stir this mixture back into the pot.

  3. Serve immediately with blanched almonds and vermicelli added to each bowl.

  4. Offer grated Parmesan cheese at the table.

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. Corn + almondtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Onion + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,205 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  4. Onion + almondtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,769 recipes

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

  5. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 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

Veal
Gives the broth its meaty body and rich savory flavor as it simmers.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety mouthfeel to the broth.
Egg yolks
Thicken the soup slightly and add richness when gently heated into the broth.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic depth to the simmered broth.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks scramble if they meet hot liquid directly. Tempering them with a little hot soup first raises their temperature gradually, so they thicken the soup smoothly instead of curdling.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, onion, corn, mace, cream, almond, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, corn, mace, cream, almond, egg. 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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