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Clear Soup Stock of Consomme

A clear soup stock made from veal or fowl, ham or bacon, egg white, celery seed, lemon rind, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,467 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Clear Soup Stock of Consomme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Brown the veal or fowl and ham or bacon to keep the soup light colored.

Clarify

  1. Remove the fat and add the beaten egg white and shell, celery seed, lemon rind, and lemon juice.

  2. Mix well and bring to a boil quickly, stirring often.

  3. Simmer for 10 more minutes, then strain through a thick napkin.

Serve

  1. Heat to boiling point before serving. The soup should be sparkling clear and light brown or straw colored.

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. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

  2. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  3. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,526 recipes

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

  4. Veal + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Veal + celerytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,336 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of veal or small fowl
Provides the main body and savory flavor of the stock as it simmers.
Lean ham or bacon
Adds savory depth to the stock, and browning it first keeps the soup light in color.
Egg white and shell
Gathers suspended particles as it cooks, so the strained stock turns sparkling clear.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps the egg white clarify the stock.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil quickly while stirring often. Egg white must be stirred in as the stock heats so it coagulates and traps cloudy particles. If it sits still or boils without stirring, the egg mass breaks up and the soup stays cloudy.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, egg, lemon):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, egg, lemon. 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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