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Consomme

A clear beef and veal broth made by simmering meat, vegetables, and spices for eight hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Consomme

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Brown half of the meat and the vegetables in a pot.

  2. Add 3 quarts of water, peppercorns, cloves, and salt.

  3. Simmer for eight hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the mixture and let it cool.

  2. Remove the fat from the top and clarify the broth.

  3. Serve with a thin slice of lemon in each bowl.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef skin
Adds gelatin and body, giving the broth a richer mouthfeel as it simmers.
Veal knuckle or fowl
Adds collagen and meaty flavor, helping the broth set and taste full.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they brown and simmer into the broth.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and color to the broth.

The step that matters

Remove the fat from the top and clarify the broth. Fat left on the surface makes the consommé greasy and cloudy. Chilling and skimming, then clarifying, lifts out fat and particles so the broth stays clear and bright.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, parsley):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, parsley. 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.

More consommé recipes

Chicken 21Veal 18Soup 15Vegetable 11Rice 8Custard 7 See all 50 →

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