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To Make White Soup

A clear veal and ham bone broth thickened with almonds and ground rice, finished with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

To Make White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a large pot, combine the veal, ham bone, mace, celery, onions, lemon peel, white peppercorns, sweet herbs, and water.

  2. Simmer until the meat falls off the bones, then strain the stock through a fine sieve into a shallow pan.

  3. Refrigerate overnight to remove the fat and sediment.

  4. In a clean pot, bring the stock to a boil.

Thicken and finish

  1. Blanch and grind the almonds in a mortar, adding a little water to prevent oiling.

  2. If available, pound in cooked veal or white chicken meat with the almonds and ground rice.

  3. Add this mixture to the boiling stock and cook for 30 minutes.

  4. Strain the soup through a sieve, then stir in the cream and a little salt.

  5. Do not let the soup boil after adding the cream.

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. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Almond + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

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

  3. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Celery + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 recipes

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

  5. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 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

Sweet almonds
Ground into a paste that gives the soup body and a creamy, nutty flavour.
Ground rice
Starch that thickens the soup and helps it hold a smooth consistency.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving a smooth, mellow mouthfeel.
Veal knuckle
Releases gelatin and savoury flavour into the stock as it simmers.

The step that matters

Do not let the soup boil after adding the cream. Boiling cream can cause it to curdle and separate, and it can make the texture grainy, so the soup should stay below a boil once the cream goes in.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, celery, onion, lemon, almond, rice. 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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