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Soup

A Tureen of Calves Feet and Asparagus Peas

A soup of calves' feet and asparagus peas simmered with stock, eggs, béchamel, salt, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Asparagus and peas match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 808 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

A Tureen of Calves Feet and Asparagus Peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the calves' feet

  1. Bone the calves' feet and place them in cold water until tender.

  2. Trim and cut the calves' feet into small pieces, then dry them on a cloth.

Make the soup

  1. Boil the asparagus peas in 1 pint of stock on a slow stove until tender.

  2. Combine the peas and their stock with 3 pints of stock in a small soup pot and bring to a boil.

  3. Add the calves' feet and keep the soup pot warm by the fire without boiling.

  4. Make a liaison by mixing the eggs with the béchamel sauce, then stir it into the soup.

  5. Heat the soup gently, stirring constantly to prevent curdling.

  6. If the soup is ready too soon, place the pot in a stewpan of hot water to keep it warm.

  7. Season with coarse sea salt and add a lump of sugar.

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. Asparagus + peastop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together808 recipes

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

  2. Sauce + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Asparagus + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Asparagus + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together573 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the soup into a smooth, creamy liaison when gently heated.
Calves' feet
Add gelatin, giving the soup body and a rich, silky mouthfeel.
Béchamel sauce
Adds richness and body, blending with the eggs to enrich the soup.
Asparagus peas
Provide the main vegetable flavor and tender texture in the soup.

The step that matters

Heating the egg liaison. Eggs thicken by gentle heat; if the soup boils or heats too fast after the eggs are added, the proteins scramble and the soup curdles. Stir constantly and keep it below a boil.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (asparagus, egg, sauce, sugar):

  1. Sesamefits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against asparagus, egg, sauce, sugar. 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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