Why it works: Milk and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Almond Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the meat and almond base
Mince the meat, then pound it in a mortar with the bread and yolks of the eggs.
Moisten the mixture with hot stock.
Add finely ground almonds to the mixture.
Pour the mixture into a clean saucepan.
Thicken and combine
Heat the milk with a blade of mace and white peppercorns until boiling.
Stir in rice flour blended with cold milk to form a smooth paste.
Remove the spices.
Boil for 10-12 minutes, stirring constantly.
When the stock boils, mix the contents of both pans together.
Finish
Add salt to taste.
Beat in cream just before serving.
Increase the quantity of meat.
Soak shredded almonds in milk.
Strain the milk into the soup.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Bread + meattop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,924 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,130 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,800 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Eggs
- Yolks and bread bind the pounded meat and enrich the soup's body.
- Almonds
- Ground almonds add body, richness and a nutty flavour to the soup.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb liquid and help thicken the mixture into a smooth base.
- Cooked white meat or poultry
- Adds savoury flavour and body when pounded into the soup base.
- Milk
- Adds creaminess and softness, and carries the thickening starch into the soup.
The step that matters
Boil for 10-12 minutes while stirring constantly. Starch from the rice flour swells as it heats, so the soup thickens fully only when it reaches a boil. Constant stirring keeps the starch from settling and scorching on the base of the pan.
Swap the almond
The recipe marks almond as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, bread, meat, cream):
- Pecansfits better
- Cocoafits about as well
- Walnutfits about as well
- Almondthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, bread, meat, 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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