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Consomme of Fresh Vegetable Roots

A clear consommé made from carrots, onions, parsley, thyme, shallot, celery, butter, water, peas, lettuce, salt, pepper, nutmeg, cloves, dried peas, and white haricots.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 ↓

Consomme of Fresh Vegetable Roots

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. In a stewpan, combine sliced carrots, onions, parsley, thyme, shallot, celery, and butter.

  2. Cook gently until the mixture turns red.

Simmer and strain

  1. Add water and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam.

  2. Stir in peas and chopped lettuces.

  3. Add salt, whole pepper, nutmeg, cloves, dried peas, and white haricots.

  4. Simmer for 3 hours, skimming off grease.

  5. Strain the mixture through a cloth and set aside for use.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat that carries flavour and helps the vegetables soften and colour gently.
Carrots
Provide sweetness and colour to the broth as they cook down.
Onions
Add savoury depth and sweetness as they soften and brown slightly.
Dried peas
Release starch and body into the liquid during the long simmer, thickening the consommé.
White haricots
Contribute starch and body to the liquid during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Skimming during the simmer. Foam and grease rise to the surface as the broth boils and simmers. Removing them keeps the consommé clear and free of a greasy film.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, onion, parsley, thyme, shallot, celery, butter):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Black-eyed peafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, onion, parsley, thyme, shallot, celery, butter. 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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