Skip to main content
Main

Almond Soup

A soup made from beef or veal, mutton, vermicelli, mace, cloves, blanched almonds, egg yolks, and thick cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Almond Soup

Why it works: Mace and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,400 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Almond Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gravy

  1. Boil the beef, veal, and mutton in water until tender and the gravy is strong.

  2. Strain the gravy.

  3. Heat the gravy with vermicelli, mace, and cloves until flavored.

Make the almond soup

  1. Pound the almonds with egg yolks.

  2. Add a little soup to the almond and egg mixture to prevent oiliness.

  3. Mix the almond and egg mixture with the cooled soup until smooth.

  4. Strain the mixture.

  5. Heat the mixture, stirring frequently.

Finish

  1. Just before serving, add ½ cup of thick 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.

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.

  1. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Beef + muttontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Clove + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,605 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

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

  5. Beef + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef or veal
Gives the broth its main meaty flavor and body.
Almonds
Pounded into the soup, they give it a thick, creamy body and nutty flavor.
Egg yolks
Thicken the soup and give it a smooth, rich texture when gently heated.
Vermicelli
Its starch adds body and a soft texture to the soup.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavor to the gravy.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel just before serving.

The step that matters

Heat the almond and egg mixture gently while stirring. Egg yolks thicken as they warm but can curdle or scramble if overheated. Frequent stirring spreads heat evenly, keeping the soup smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, mutton, clove, almond, egg, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mutton, clove, almond, egg, 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.

More almond soup recipes

Chicken 5White 3 See all 79 →

You might also like

Beef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipes