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Modern Cookery

A hearty soup made from veal, ham, chicken, herbs, carrots, onions, mace, peppercorns, and bread, thickened with cream and arrow‑root.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Modern Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine veal, ham, water, herbs, carrots, onions, mace, peppercorns, and salt in a large pot.

  2. Simmer for 5 hours.

  3. Add the chickens and cook for an additional 1 to 1½ hours.

  4. Strain the stock and let it cool.

  5. Skim off any fat.

Make the soup

  1. In a small portion of boiling stock, steep the bread for a few minutes.

  2. Drain the bread.

  3. Pound the bread with the chicken until well blended.

  4. Gradually mix in the stock until smooth.

  5. Pass the mixture through a sieve into a clean pot.

  6. Heat the mixture.

  7. Stir in 1 to 1½ pints of boiling cream.

  8. If the soup is not thick enough, mix 1½ oz of arrow‑root with cold milk or stock.

  9. Add the mixture to the soup.

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. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  2. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Veal + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).

  5. Ham + chickentop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Long simmering releases gelatin and flavour, giving the stock body and a rich base.
Chicken
Adds savoury depth and body to the stock and is pounded into the soup for texture.
Light stale bread
Thickens the soup as it breaks down, giving a smooth, velvety body.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Arrow-root
Acts as a starch thickener to firm up the soup if it is still thin.

The step that matters

Thickening with arrow-root. Starch must be mixed smoothly with cold liquid before adding it, because dropped into hot soup it clumps. Starch thickens only when heated, so the soup should be brought back to a simmer after it is added.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, carrot, onion, chicken, bread, cream):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, carrot, onion, chicken, bread, 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.

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