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White Soup

A veal broth thickened with egg yolks and cream, seasoned with white pepper, mace, salt, onions, and ham.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: White pepper and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Boil the veal or shanks in 4 quarts of water for about 4 hours with whole white pepper, mace, salt, onions, and ham.

  2. Strain the soup and let it cool; remove all fat and sediment.

Finish the soup

  1. Beat the egg yolks and mix them with the cream.

  2. Pour the boiling soup over the egg and cream mixture.

  3. Boil the cream before adding it to the soup.

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. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Mace + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  4. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 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

Veal knuckle or shanks
Long simmering draws gelatin from the bones, giving the soup body and a rich mouthfeel.
Egg yolks
Thicken the soup as they gently heat, giving it a smooth, velvety texture.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, softening the flavour and making the finished soup silky.
Onions
Add savoury, aromatic sweetness to the stock as it simmers.
Ham
Contributes a salty, savoury depth to the stock.

The step that matters

Pouring the boiling soup over the egg and cream mixture. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat. Pouring very hot liquid onto them too quickly can scramble them into grainy specks. Adding the hot soup slowly while whisking spreads the heat evenly and keeps the mixture smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, white pepper, mace, ham, egg, cream):

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Onionthe original
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, white pepper, mace, ham, 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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