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Amber Soup

A clear soup made from soup bone, chicken, ham, vegetables, and caramel, simmered for hours and clarified.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,097 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Amber Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine soup bone, chicken, ham, and cold water in a large pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 hours.

  2. Fry the onion in a little hot fat, then add the cloves.

  3. Add the fried onion and vegetables to the pot and cook for the last hour.

  4. Strain the soup into an earthen bowl and let it sit overnight.

Clarify and finish

  1. The next day, remove the fat from the top and take out the jelly, avoiding the sediment.

  2. Mix the beaten whites of 2 eggs with the shells.

  3. Boil quickly for 30 seconds.

  4. Skim off the scum and egg whites from the top without stirring the soup.

  5. Pass the soup through a jelly bag until clear.

  6. Reheat the soup just before serving and add a large spoonful of caramel for color and flavor.

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. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  5. Parsley + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together484 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Soup bone
Releases gelatin and savory flavor into the stock during long simmering.
Chicken
Adds body and savory depth to the stock as it cooks.
Eggs (in the method)
Whites bind impurities into a raft that clarifies the soup when skimmed.
Caramel
Contributes deep amber color and a toasted sweetness to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Skim without stirring after the egg boil. Once the egg whites have coagulated, stirring breaks the raft apart and returns cloudy particles to the liquid, so the soup stays murky instead of clear.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, ham, onion, parsley, carrot, parsnip, celery):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, ham, onion, parsley, carrot, parsnip, celery. 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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