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An Excellent White Soup

A clear broth made from mutton, veal, and gammon, enriched with almonds, cream, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and white pepper 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 ↓

An Excellent White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine the mutton, veal knuckle, mutton shank bones, gammon, sweet herbs, lemon peel, onions, mace, white pepper, and water in a large pot.

  2. Boil until the meat falls apart.

  3. Remove the fat from the soup.

  4. Clear the jelly from the sediment.

  5. Transfer the jelly to a clean saucepan.

  6. If using macaroni, add it now.

  7. Cook the macaroni until tender.

Make the thickening

  1. Blanch the almonds.

  2. Grind the almonds to a paste with 1 tablespoon of water to prevent oiling.

  3. Mince the veal or chicken.

  4. Mix the minced veal or chicken with a piece of stale bread.

  5. Combine this mixture with the thick cream, lemon peel, and powdered mace in a saucepan.

  6. Boil for a few minutes.

  7. Add 1 pint of the soup.

  8. Strain through a coarse sieve.

Finish the soup

  1. If using vermicelli, add it after thickening.

  2. Add the thickening to the soup.

  3. Boil for an additional 30 minutes.

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. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  4. Mutton + meattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + vealtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,394 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Gives the soup its main meat flavour and body as it simmers.
Veal knuckle
Its connective tissue breaks down into gelatin, giving the broth body.
Mutton shank bones
Release collagen during long simmering, enriching the broth with gelatin.
Sweet almonds
Ground to a paste, they add body and a mild, nutty richness.
Thick cream
Adds richness, fat and a smooth, velvety texture.
Stale white bread
Its starch helps thicken the mixture and give it body.

The step that matters

Grinding the almonds with water. Almonds are rich in oil, and grinding them dry can release that oil and make the paste greasy. Adding a little water keeps the oil emulsified in a smooth paste that blends evenly into the soup.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, veal, meat, lemon, onion, mace, almond):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, veal, meat, lemon, onion, mace, almond. 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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