Skip to main content
Main

Consomme

A clear beef consommé made with beef, carrot, onion, cloves, red pepper, butter, stock, egg white, and optional sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Beef and chicken match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,148 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Consomme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into small pieces and wash and peel the carrot and onion.

  2. In a soup pot, combine the beef, carrot, onion, cloves, red pepper, salt, and pepper.

  3. Add the butter and fill the pot with stock.

Simmer and strain

  1. Bring to a boil, skim thoroughly, and then simmer slowly for 1 hour.

  2. Strain the soup and cool it overnight.

Clarify and serve

  1. Skim off the grease, return to a pot, and add the beaten egg white.

  2. Bring to a boil and serve hot, adding sherry if desired.

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. Beef + chickentop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  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

Lean beef
Provides the main meaty flavor and body as it simmers into the broth.
Egg white
Clarifies the broth as it coagulates, trapping fine particles so the soup turns clear.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the beef and vegetables.
Butter
Adds fat and a rounded richness to the finished broth.

The step that matters

Skimming after the boil. Removing foam and fat keeps the consommé clear and free of greasy, cloudy particles. Simmering gently rather than boiling prevents the broth from turning murky as fat and proteins are stirred up.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, onion, pepper, butter, chicken, egg):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, onion, pepper, butter, chicken, egg. 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 →

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipes