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Velvet Soup

A creamy chicken soup made with cream, breadcrumbs, powdered chicken, and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Velvet Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Cover the chicken with cold water in a covered pot and cook slowly.

  2. Add chicken stock, onion, celery, clove, and nutmeg.

  3. Cover and simmer until the celery and onion are tender.

  4. Strain the mixture.

Finish and serve

  1. Add cream, bread crumbs, powdered chicken, and powdered almonds.

  2. Bring to a boil on the hottest part of the stove, stirring frequently.

  3. Serve immediately.

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. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Celery + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Fat chicken
Provides the main meat flavour and body for the broth.
Rich cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the soup a smooth, velvety texture.
Fine white bread crumbs
Thicken the soup as they absorb liquid and swell.
Powdered chicken breast
Adds meaty flavour and thickens the soup body.
Powdered blanched almonds
Add fat and body, contributing to a smooth, thick texture.

The step that matters

Bringing the soup to a boil. Stirring frequently prevents the cream, ground almonds and bread crumbs from scorching on the bottom of the pan. Scorching gives a burnt taste and grainy texture, so the soup should be stirred steadily while it heats.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, celery, clove, nutmeg, cream, bread, almond):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Arrowrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, celery, clove, nutmeg, cream, bread, 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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