Skip to main content
Soup

White Soup

A veal broth thickened with arrow‑root, enriched with cream, vermicelli, and almond strips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine veal and water in a large pot.

  2. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum.

  3. Add salt, onions, white pepper, mace, and cayenne.

  4. Simmer slowly until reduced by one third.

  5. Strain the soup and let it cool.

  6. Remove fat and sediment.

Finish and serve

  1. Reheat the strained soup in a clean pot.

  2. Mix in cream blended with arrow-root.

  3. Add the boiled vermicelli and almond strips.

  4. Simmer for 1 minute and 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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  3. Mace + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

Mace and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,257 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Gives the soup its meaty body and rich flavour as it simmers into broth.
Thick cream
Adds fat and a smooth, rich mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Arrow-root
Thickens the cream mixture so the soup becomes smoothly viscous.
Vermicelli
Adds starchy body and bulk, giving the soup substance.
Blanched almonds
Contribute texture and a mild nutty flavour through the strips.

The step that matters

Mix in cream blended with arrow-root. Arrow-root thickens when heated, but adding it to hot liquid unblended causes lumps. Blending it first into cold cream and adding it to the hot soup gives a smooth, evenly thickened result.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, mace, pepper, 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.

You might also like

Indian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and SpinachIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and Spinach448 recipesClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd SoupClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd Soup65 recipesMock Bisque SoupMock Bisque Soup51 recipesCream of Asparagus SoupCream of Asparagus Soup42 recipes