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White Soup

A veal stock thickened with almonds, sweet cream, and beaten egg, served warm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,108 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a pot, combine veal, ham, onions, thyme, cloves, mace, and cold water to cover.

  2. Bring to a boil and cook until the meat separates from the bone.

  3. Remove from heat and strain through a sieve.

  4. Once cooled, skim off the fat from the top.

Finish the soup

  1. Add pounded almonds to the stock and bring to a slow boil.

  2. Thirty minutes before serving, thicken the soup with sweet cream and beaten egg.

  3. Keep warm but do not boil before serving.

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. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Thyme + almondtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together198 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Releases gelatin and collagen into the stock, giving body and a silky mouthfeel.
Almonds
Pounded into the stock, they add body and a nutty flavor while lightly thickening the soup.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and fat, softening the flavor and rounding out the soup.
Egg
Thickens the cream-enriched soup as it gently heats, giving a smoother, richer texture.
Onion
Builds savory sweetness and aroma as it cooks into the stock.

The step that matters

Thickening with egg and cream. If the soup boils after the egg is added, the egg proteins can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture. Keeping it warm but below a boil lets the egg thicken it smoothly.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, onion, thyme, clove, mace, cream):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Almondthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, onion, thyme, clove, mace, 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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