Why it works: Milk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Soupe Blanche
Ingredients
Directions
Make the broth
Boil the water with celery or onion for flavor.
Remove the celery or onion from the water.
Boil the milk and water together.
Thicken and finish
Reserve some cold milk to blend with the flour.
Mix the reserved cold milk with the flour until smooth.
Add the flour mixture to the boiling milk and water, stirring constantly.
Whisk the egg yolks in a separate bowl.
Temporarily add a bit of the hot soup to the whisked egg yolks.
Add the tempered egg yolks to the pot.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
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.
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together26,984 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Flour
- Thickens the soup as its starch swells in the hot liquid, giving body.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help enrich and thicken the soup when gently heated.
- Milk
- Provides the creamy base and mild sweetness of the soup.
The step that matters
Adding the tempered egg yolks. Egg yolks scramble if they meet very hot liquid directly. Warming them first with a little hot soup, then adding them off the heat or at low heat, keeps the soup smooth and silky.
“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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