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Cheese Soup

A creamy soup made with milk, carrot, onion, mace, flour, butter, Parmesan cheese, egg, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Cheese Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a double boiler, heat the milk with the carrot, onion, and mace for 30 minutes.

  2. Remove the vegetables from the milk.

Make the soup

  1. In a separate bowl, blend the flour and butter, adding a little milk to create a white sauce.

  2. Stir the white sauce into the milk and cook until it thickens slightly.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the grated cheese and beaten egg.

  4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,029 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the sauce and cheese are added to.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a white sauce as it cooks.
Butter
Combines with the flour to form the roux that thickens the soup.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory flavor and richness to the finished soup.
Egg
Adds body and richness to the soup when stirred in off the heat.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg off the heat. Egg proteins set at high heat and can curdle or scramble in hot liquid. Removing the pan from the heat before adding the beaten egg and cheese helps keep the soup smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, carrot, onion, flour, butter, parmesan cheese, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, carrot, onion, flour, butter, parmesan cheese, egg. 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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