Skip to main content
Main

Consomme a LA Royale

A consommé served with small custard cubes colored with cochineal, spinach, or plain.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Consomme a LA Royale

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Mix the yolks of six eggs with ⅓ cup cold water and a pinch of salt.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Divide the strained mixture into three equal parts.

  4. Color one part with cochineal.

  5. Color another part with spinach greening.

  6. Leave the third part plain.

Set the custard

  1. Butter three moulds.

  2. Fill the moulds with the colored mixtures.

  3. Place the moulds in a pan of hot water.

  4. Boil the moulds just long enough to set the mixture.

  5. Once set, cool the moulds.

  6. Turn out the custard onto a wet napkin.

Cut and serve

  1. Cut the custard into small dice.

  2. Spread the dice on a plate, covering until ready to use.

  3. Add the custard pieces to the soup tureen with the consommé.

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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Egg + spinachtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,323 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Butter + spinachtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,583 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Set into a firm custard when gently heated, giving the garnish its structure.
Cold water
Thins the yolks so the custard stays tender rather than rubbery.

The step that matters

Boil the moulds just long enough to set the mixture. Egg custard turns grainy and spongy if overheated, because the proteins tighten too far and squeeze out water. Stop once the custard has just set.

Swap the spinach

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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.

You might also like

Spinach SoupSpinach Soup50 recipesCream of SpinachCream of Spinach29 recipesCreamed Spinach SoupCreamed Spinach Soup19 recipesSpinach and EggsSpinach and Eggs8 recipes