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Croutons for Soup

Croutons for Soup are toasted bread cubes fried in fat and added to soup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Croutons for Soup

Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Croutons for Soup

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Fry the croutons

  1. Heat 1 inch of boiling fat in a frying pan.

  2. Drop in enough bread squares to cover the surface of the fat.

  3. Fry until browned, then remove with a skimmer and drain.

Serve

  1. Add to hot soup and serve.

Alternative: bake

  1. For an alternative method, butter thin slices of bread, cut into ¾ inch squares, and place in a buttered baking pan.

  2. Brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Stale bread
Its dry, firm crumb holds its shape and crisps when fried or baked.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour and helps the bread brown in the alternative baked method.

The step that matters

Frying until browned. Bread absorbs fat quickly and can turn greasy or soggy if fried too briefly, or burn if the fat is too hot. Watch for even golden colour and drain well before serving.

“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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