Skip to main content
Main

Dauphine Soup

A French soup made with a smooth mixture of chicken consommé, eggs, parsley, and herbs, formed into pea-shaped dumplings and simmered.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Dauphine Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. In a bowl, mix 2 cups of strong chicken consommé with 2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks until smooth.

  2. Stir in 1 tablespoon of chopped blanched parsley.

  3. Prepare two funnel-shaped papers with a ¼ inch hole at the tip.

  4. Fill each paper with the paste and close the large end tightly.

Form and poach the peas

  1. Force the paste out onto a buttered stewpan lid in the shape of large peas.

  2. Prepare boiling consommé in a stewpan and shake the peas into it.

  3. Let the peas boil gently for 5 minutes, then strain them.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the peas to 3 quarts of strong bright consommé and boil gently for another 5 minutes.

  2. Add a handful of tarragon and a handful of chervil, and boil briefly before serving.

  3. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese on the side.

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. Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Parsley + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Parsley + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together774 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Chicken + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,846 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Chicken + tarragontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together619 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set when cooked, giving the pea-shaped paste its firm body.
Egg yolks
Add richness and a smoother, more tender texture to the paste.
Parmesan cheese
Adds salty, savoury flavour when served on the side.

The step that matters

Forcing the paste into peas. The paste must be firm and evenly filled so the peas hold their shape; loose paste or a torn bag spreads out in the hot consommé and loses its form.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, tarragon, chervil, parmesan cheese):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Basilfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, tarragon, chervil, parmesan cheese. 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.

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesMacaroni and CheeseMacaroni and Cheese102 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipes