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White Soup

A veal and ham broth thickened with almonds, cream, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,108 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine veal, ham, onions, thyme, cloves, and mace in a large pot.

  2. Stew for 12-14 hours until the stock is rich.

  3. For a richer stock, add an old fowl if available.

  4. Let the stock cool, then remove the fat.

Finish the soup

  1. Add pounded almonds and bring to a slow boil.

  2. Thicken with cream and beaten egg, and simmer for 30 minutes.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,605 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Thyme + almondtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together198 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Pounded blanched almonds
Their oils and proteins give the soup body and a nutty, creamy flavour.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the soup a smooth, velvety mouthfeel.
Egg
Thickens the soup as it gently heats, helping it turn creamy rather than watery.
Veal knuckle
Releases collagen and flavour during long stewing, giving the stock body and depth.

The step that matters

Thicken with cream and beaten egg. Egg proteins set when heated, so the soup must simmer gently and not boil hard, or the egg can curdle and turn grainy.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, onion, thyme, clove, mace, cream):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, onion, thyme, clove, mace, 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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