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Cream of Spinach

A creamy spinach soup made with stock, butter, flour, cream, and an egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Cream of Spinach

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cream of Spinach

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the spinach

  1. Boil the spinach until tender.

  2. Strain the spinach and reserve the cooking liquid.

Make the soup

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and mix in the flour to form a roux.

  2. Gradually add the reserved cooking liquid and stock, stirring until smooth.

  3. Stir in the cream or milk.

  4. Just before serving, add the beaten egg and cook for 1 minute.

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

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

  2. Spinach + flourtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Spinach + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Spinach
Provides the main body, color, and earthy flavor of the soup.
Butter
Carries flavor and, with the flour, forms the roux that thickens the soup.
Flour
Thickens the liquid when cooked with butter into a roux.
Cream or milk
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture.
Egg
Adds richness and helps thicken the soup when gently cooked.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten egg. Egg proteins set with heat, so if the soup is too hot or boils after the egg goes in, it can curdle and turn grainy. Add it just before serving and keep the heat low.

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, cream, egg):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, cream, egg. 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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