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Soup

Cheap, Clear Gravy Soup

A clear beef soup made by simmering beef, spices, and vegetables for several hours, then strained and seasoned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Cheap, Clear Gravy Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut the beef into 5-6 pieces from the thick fleshy part and divide the knuckle.

  2. Place the beef in a pot and add 3 quarts of cold water.

  3. Bring to a boil slowly, skimming off any foam.

Simmer the soup

  1. Add salt, peppercorns, cloves, mace, savory herbs, carrots, celery, and onion if using.

  2. Stew gently for 4 hours until the beef is tender.

  3. Remove the beef from the soup.

  4. Simmer the soup for an additional 2-3 hours.

  5. Strain the soup through a fine sieve into a clean pan.

  6. Once cooled, remove any fat from the surface.

Finish the soup

  1. Heat the strained soup.

  2. When boiling, stir in sugar, soy sauce, and mushroom ketchup or Harvey's sauce.

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. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  4. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  5. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Shin or leg of beef
Provides the meat and connective tissue that give the broth body and flavour as it slowly cooks.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth during the long simmer.
Celery
Adds savoury, vegetal aroma that rounds out the broth's flavour.
Sugar
Adds a light sweetness that balances the salt and savoury notes.
Soy sauce
Adds savoury depth and umami to the finished broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam as it comes to a boil. Foam carries denatured proteins and impurities that cloud the broth and can taste bitter. Removing it early, while bringing the water to a boil slowly, keeps the soup clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, clove, mace, carrot, celery, sugar, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, clove, mace, carrot, celery, sugar, sauce. 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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