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Westerfield White Soup

A veal-based white soup with cream, vermicelli, almonds, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Arrowroot and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 179 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Westerfield White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Break the bone of the veal knuckle in one or two places.

  2. Place the knuckle in a pot with the cold water.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Skim off any scum that rises to the surface.

  5. Add the salt, onions, white pepper, mace, and cayenne pepper.

  6. Simmer slowly until the soup reduces by one third.

  7. Strain the soup and let it cool.

  8. Remove the fat and sediment.

Finish and serve

  1. Reheat the strained soup in a clean pot.

  2. In a bowl, blend the cream with the arrowroot until smooth.

  3. When the soup boils, mix in the cream mixture, vermicelli, and almonds.

  4. Simmer for one minute.

  5. Serve immediately with a French roll.

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. Arrowroot + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together179 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + arrowroottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together340 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + arrowroottop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together329 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Veal knuckle
Breaks down into gelatin during simmering, giving the soup body and a rich mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the finished soup.
Arrowroot
Thickens the soup into a smooth, glossy consistency without clouding it.
Vermicelli
Adds soft, starchy body and bulk to each serving.
Almonds
Contribute a mild nutty flavor and a crisp, contrasting texture.

The step that matters

Adding the cream and arrowroot mixture. Arrowroot must be fully blended into the cream before it meets the hot soup, or it will form lumps. It should then be brought to a boil to activate its thickening, but held there only briefly so the cream does not separate or the starch break down.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, pepper, cream, arrowroot, almond. 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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