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Clear Soup, No. I

A clear soup made with egg whites, crushed eggshells, turnip, carrot, tomato, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Clear Soup, No. I

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the whites of the eggs with the crushed shells until frothy.

  2. Add the turnip, carrot, tomato, and beaten egg whites to the cold stock.

Clarify and strain

  1. Whisk over heat until the stock is nearly boiling, then remove the whisk.

  2. Allow the stock to boil, then let it sit by the fire for 20 minutes.

  3. Strain the stock slowly through a thick cloth into a basin.

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. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,606 recipes

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

  3. Turnip + tomatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together463 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenol (green, grassy).

  4. Egg + tomatotop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + carrottop 35% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg whites form a foam that gathers impurities and clouds, then set into a raft that clarifies the stock.
Eggshells
Crushed shells add calcium carbonate that helps the egg whites bind and lift particles from the stock.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and vegetable flavour to the stock.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and colour to the stock.
Tomato
Adds acidity and savoury flavour to the stock.

The step that matters

Whisking the stock as it heats. Whisking keeps the egg whites dispersed so they can coagulate into a raft that traps cloudy particles. Removing the whisk once nearly boiling lets the raft form undisturbed, and a gentle boil keeps the stock clear rather than churning it cloudy.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, turnip, carrot. 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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