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Westerfield White Soup

A veal-based white soup with cream, vermicelli, almonds, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: White pepper and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Westerfield White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Break the bone of a knuckle of veal in one or two places and place it in a pot with 3 quarts of cold water.

  2. Once the scum has cleared, add 1½ ounces of coarse sea salt, 1 mild onion, 20 corns of white pepper, 2 or 3 blades of mace, and a pinch of cayenne pepper.

  3. Simmer slowly until the soup is reduced by one-third, then strain and let it cool.

  4. Remove the fat and sediment, then reheat the soup in a clean pot.

Finish and serve

  1. When boiling, mix in 1 pint of thick cream blended with 1 ounce of arrowroot, 2 ounces of previously boiled and drained vermicelli, and 1½ ounces of blanched and sliced almonds.

  2. Simmer for 1 minute and serve immediately with a French roll.

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

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Corn + arrowroottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together78 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

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

  4. Onion + arrowroottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together340 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Gives the soup its meaty body and rich flavour as it simmers into stock.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the finished soup.
Arrowroot
Thickens the cream mixture so the soup becomes smooth and lightly body-rich.
Vermicelli
Adds soft pasta texture that gives the soup substance when served.
Almonds
Contribute a delicate nutty flavour and a slight crunch to the soup.

The step that matters

Adding the cream and arrowroot at a boil. Arrowroot thickens when heated but can clump if added to hot liquid unmixed. Blending it into the cream first and stirring it in gently keeps the soup smooth, while a brief simmer sets the thickening without overcooking the cream.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, corn, mace, pepper, cream, arrowroot. 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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