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Beef Consomme

A clear beef consommé made with stock, vegetables, spices, gelatin, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Beef Consomme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Brown the flour in a dry kettle over steam until it is a nice brown.

  2. Soak the gelatin in cold water for 2 to 3 hours.

  3. Chop all vegetables finely.

Make the consommé

  1. Combine the chopped vegetables with the soup stock and spices in a large kettle.

  2. Simmer the mixture for 4 to 5 hours.

  3. Strain the consommé through a double-layered flannel drip bag.

  4. Mix the soaked gelatin and browned flour into a thin paste.

  5. Strain the paste through a 20 mesh wire sieve.

Can and process

  1. Fill the soup into No. 1 cans.

  2. Exhaust the cans for 3 minutes.

  3. Process the cans at 250°F (120°C) for 45 minutes.

  4. Dilute the consommé by half when 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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Parsley + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Soup stock
Forms the liquid base and carries the main beef flavor of the consommé.
Wheat flour
Browned and mixed into a paste, it adds color and light body to the consommé.
Gelatin
Adds body and a fuller mouthfeel to the thin clear broth.
Carrots
Contribute sweetness and color as they simmer into the stock.
Onions
Build savory depth and aroma during the long simmer.
Parsley
Adds a fresh herbal aroma to the finished broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently rather than boiling. Vigorous boiling churns the vegetables and fine particles through the liquid, clouding the broth. A gentle simmer lets particles settle so the straining steps can produce a clear consommé.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, parsley, onion, garlic, thyme, gelatin, wheat):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, parsley, onion, garlic, thyme, gelatin, wheat. 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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