Why it works: Rabbit and pheasant share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 55 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Another Way to Make White Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the stock
In a large pot, combine the white stock, veal, ham, onions, carrot, parsley, and mace.
Boil for one hour, then strain the mixture.
Add the flavourings
Add the pounded fowl or pheasant, pounded almonds, and pounded egg yolks to the strained stock.
Pass the mixture through a sieve.
Finish the soup
Mix the beaten egg yolks with the warmed cream and add to the soup.
To prevent curdling, mix in 2 or 3 teaspoons of common batter with the cream.
Stir over low heat until thoroughly hot, but do not allow it to boil.
Season with salt and add the pounded sugar.
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.
-
Rabbit + pheasanttop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together55 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Rabbit + oniontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,292 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg yolks
- Beaten yolks and pounded hard-boiled yolks thicken the soup and give it a rich, smooth body.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
- Sweet almonds
- Pounded almonds add body and a mild, nutty flavour, lightly thickening the soup.
- Fowl or pheasant
- Pounded white meat gives the soup body and a savoury, meaty flavour.
- White stock
- Forms the liquid base that carries all the other flavours.
The step that matters
Stir over low heat without boiling. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat and curdle or scramble if they boil, leaving the soup grainy. Adding batter to the cream helps stabilise the emulsion against curdling.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, veal, ham, onion, carrot, parsley, pheasant):
- Thymefits better
- Celeryfits better
- Garlicfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, veal, ham, onion, carrot, parsley, pheasant. 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 white soup recipes
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Carrot Soup134 recipes
Almond Soup60 recipes
Veal Patties50 recipes
Pheasant Soup25 recipes