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White Soup

A veal broth thickened with flour, eggs, milk, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Mace and white pepper 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 veal broth

  1. Place the knuckle of veal in a pot and cover with water.

  2. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum.

  3. Boil until the meat separates from the bones.

  4. Remove the meat.

  5. Return the bones to the pot.

  6. Boil for another 45 minutes, adding water as needed.

  7. Strain the broth through a colander to yield about 1½ quarts of soup.

  8. Cool and refrigerate overnight.

Finish the soup

  1. Bring the soup to a boil with the milk and butter.

  2. Add the mace, pepper, and salt to taste.

  3. Blend the flour with cold water in a small bowl.

  4. Pour this mixture into the boiling soup and cook for 3-4 minutes.

  5. Remove the pot from heat.

  6. Beat the egg yolks in a separate bowl.

  7. Mix in a little of the hot soup.

  8. Gradually stir this mixture back into the soup, ensuring it doesn't boil to prevent curdling.

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. Mace + white peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,346 recipes

    Shared aroma: sabinene (woody, terpenic).

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Veal knuckle
Releases gelatin and flavour into the broth, giving the soup body.
Milk
Adds richness and a mild sweetness, making the soup creamy.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the soup as its starch swells in hot liquid.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the soup when gently heated, adding smoothness.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat. If the soup boils after they go in, the proteins scramble and curdle, so the soup must stay below boiling.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, milk, egg, mace, flour):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, milk, egg, mace, flour. 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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