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To Clarify Soup Stock

A clarified soup stock made by simmering beef, veal, vegetables, and seasonings, then straining to remove solids and fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

To Clarify Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Clarify the stock

  1. Heat the stock to boiling point.

  2. Add the beaten egg white.

  3. Boil for 2 minutes, then reduce heat and cook gently for 10 minutes.

  4. Remove any scum that forms on the surface.

  5. Strain the stock through cheesecloth.

Make the stock

  1. Combine beef, veal, turnips, carrots, soup greens, red pepper, onions, salt, and water in a large pot.

  2. Bring to a boil and simmer for 6 hours.

  3. Strain through a sieve.

  4. Let stand overnight to congeal.

Finish and serve

  1. Skim off the grease.

  2. Reheat 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. 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. Turnip + carrottop 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Gives the stock its meaty flavor and, as it simmers, gelatin that adds body.
Veal knuckle
Its bones and connective tissue release gelatin, which gives the stock body and helps it set when chilled.
Egg white
As it cooks, it forms a raft that traps cloudy particles, clarifying the stock.
Onions
Add savory aroma and depth of flavor as they cook into the stock.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and aroma to the stock.

The step that matters

Keep the clarifying stock gently simmering. Once the egg white is added and the stock boils, the coagulated egg white forms a raft that traps cloudy particles. Keeping the heat low lets the raft form and stay intact. Hard boiling breaks it up and clouds the stock.

Swap the turnip

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Parsnipfits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, beef, veal, carrot, celery, parsley, pepper. 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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