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Clear Gravy Soup

A clear broth made by simmering beef, veal, mutton, and vegetables in water, then skimming fat and straining.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Clear Gravy Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the pot

  1. Rub a large stew‑pan or stock‑pot with a coarse cloth.

  2. Grease the bottom and sides with marrow or melt a large piece of butter.

Make the broth

  1. Add the beef, veal, mutton, and any fresh meat trimmings.

  2. Add the carrot, celery, onions, leeks, and turnip.

  3. Heat over a brisk fire until it catches but does not burn.

  4. Pour in 5 quarts of soft water and scum carefully.

  5. Add 1 pint of cold water to raise more scum.

  6. Simmer slowly for 4 hours.

  7. Let it settle by the hearth, skim off the fat, and strain.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin of beef
Gives the broth its meaty body and rich flavour as it simmers.
Veal knuckle
Adds gelatine from bones and connective tissue, giving the broth body.
Mutton shanks
Contribute bone and connective tissue for extra depth and body in the stock.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury aroma as they cook into the broth.
Celery
Adds aromatic flavour to the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Scumming and simmering slowly. Letting the liquid boil hard emulsifies fat and proteins into the broth, making it cloudy. Keeping it at a gentle simmer and skimming scum lets impurities rise so the broth stays clear.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, mutton, meat, carrot, onion, leek):

  1. Celerythe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, mutton, meat, carrot, onion, leek. 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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