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White Soup

A clear soup made from mutton, veal, sheep's feet, bacon, cream, almonds, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,536 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Boil the mutton, veal, sheep's feet, bacon or ham, bouquet garni, lemon peel, onions, mace, and peppercorns in 3 quarts of water in a large pot.

  2. Cover and cook slowly until the meat falls apart.

  3. Let the mixture cool overnight.

  4. Remove the fat and transfer the jelly to another saucepan, leaving solids behind.

Prepare the thickening

  1. Blanch the almonds and grind them to a paste with 1 teaspoon of water.

  2. Mince the cooked veal or chicken and stale bread.

  3. Mix the minced veal or chicken and stale bread with the almond paste.

Finish the soup

  1. Add this mixture to 1 pint of cream, along with the fresh lemon rind and powdered mace, and bring to a boil.

  2. Gradually stir in 1 pint of the warmed jelly.

  3. Strain through a colander.

  4. Boil together for 15 minutes.

  5. Season with salt to taste.

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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Mutton + breadtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Mutton + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Sheep's feet and veal knuckle
Release gelatin during long simmering, giving the stock a jelly-like body.
Sweet almonds
Ground to a paste, they add richness and body to the cream base.
Stale bread
Its starch absorbs liquid and helps thicken the soup as it is minced into the mixture.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the finished soup a smooth, velvety texture.
Cooked veal or chicken
Minced into the mixture, it adds body and meaty flavor to the soup.
Mutton
Its meat and fat slowly break down, enriching the stock with flavor.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the warmed jelly. Adding the jelly slowly to the cream mixture helps it blend smoothly, while adding it all at once or at high heat can cause the dairy to curdle or separate.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, veal, ham, lemon, onion, almond, bread. 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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