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Rich White Soup

A hearty soup made with fowl, veal, almonds, and a creamy breadcrumb mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Rich White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fowl and veal

  1. Cut the fowl into pieces.

  2. Butter the inside of a soup pot.

  3. Add the fowl pieces and veal (or calf's feet) to the pot.

  4. Season with salt, cayenne pepper, and soup herbs.

  5. Cover with water and stew slowly for 1 hour, skimming as needed.

  6. Remove the breasts and wings from the fowl.

  7. Keep the pot covered and continue stewing the veal and remaining fowl.

Make the almond and bread mixture

  1. Chop the meat finely.

  2. Soak the grated bread crumbs in warm milk.

  3. Mix the chopped chicken with soaked bread, egg yolks, and almonds.

  4. Pound the mixture in a mortar until well combined.

Finish the soup

  1. Strain the soup from the meat.

  2. Stir in the mixture after it has reduced to 2 quarts.

  3. Boil the cream or rich milk separately.

  4. Add it hot to the soup gradually.

  5. Cover and let it simmer for a few more minutes before serving.

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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

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

  5. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 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

Fowls
Provide the main meat and flavour that builds the body of the broth.
Veal or calf's feet
Adds gelatin from connective tissue, giving the soup body and a richer mouthfeel.
Egg yolks
Bind the pounded mixture and help thicken the soup as it heats.
Bread crumbs
Soaked in milk, they add body and help thicken the pounded mixture.
Almonds
Add nutty flavour and a fine, creamy texture to the pounded mixture.
Cream or rich milk
Adds richness, fat and a smooth, creamy texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Adding the cream or milk. Hot dairy added to a hot soup can curdle or separate if poured in quickly. Adding it hot and gradually, while stirring, helps it blend smoothly and keeps the soup silky.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pepper, bread, milk, egg, cream):

  1. Peasfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pepper, bread, milk, egg, cream. 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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