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Almond Soup

A soup made from beef or veal, mutton, vermicelli, mace, cloves, blanched almonds, egg yolks, thick cream, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Almond Soup

Why it works: Mace and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,400 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Almond Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Boil the beef, veal, and mutton in enough water to cover until tender.

  2. Strain the gravy and return it to the fire with vermicelli, mace, and cloves.

  3. Boil until the flavor of the spices is strong.

Make the almond base

  1. Pound the almonds with the egg yolks, adding a little soup to prevent oiliness.

  2. Mix the almond and egg mixture with more soup until smooth.

  3. Strain the mixture and heat it, stirring frequently.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, add ½ cup of thick cream.

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. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Beef + muttontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Clove + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,605 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  5. Beef + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Blanched almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavor of the soup when pounded into a smooth base.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Help bind the pounded almonds and thicken the soup into a smooth, rich texture.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel just before serving.
Vermicelli
Adds starch and body to the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Pound the almonds with the egg yolks, adding a little soup to prevent oiliness.. Almonds release oil when crushed, and the egg yolks and a splash of liquid help emulsify it. Adding soup gradually keeps the paste from turning greasy and separating.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, mutton, clove, almond, egg, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, mutton, clove, almond, 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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