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Almond Soup

A veal broth thickened with corn starch, sweetened with cream, and finished with chopped almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Almond Soup

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Almond Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Simmer veal in cold water for 4 hours.

  2. Add onion, celery, parsley, salt, and pepper; strain and cool.

  3. Remove the fat from the cooled stock.

Finish the soup

  1. In a pan, cook butter and corn starch together.

  2. Add this mixture to the boiling soup and cook for 5 minutes.

  3. Stir in sweet cream, salt, and pepper to taste.

  4. Finally, add the chopped almonds.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Gives the stock its body and meaty flavor as it simmers for hours.
Corn starch
Thickens the soup as it cooks with the butter and boiling liquid.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Blanched almonds
Contribute nutty flavor and a fine texture that gives the soup body.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor, and coats the starch so it blends smoothly.

The step that matters

Cooking the butter and corn starch together before adding to the soup. Cooking starch with fat first forms a roux, which keeps the starch from clumping when it hits the hot liquid and lets it thicken evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, celery, parsley, pepper, butter, corn, cream):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, celery, parsley, pepper, butter, corn, 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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