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Consommé with Rice

A clear mutton broth with rice, simmered with onion, carrot, and turnip, served after removing fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Consommé with Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Wipe the mutton with a damp cloth.

  2. Cut off any dried outer skin from the mutton.

  3. Dredge the meat with flour.

  4. Pour 1 quart of cold water over the meat.

  5. Soak for a few hours.

Make the broth

  1. Simmer covered for several hours.

  2. Strain the broth.

  3. Add enough cold water to cover the bones and meat.

  4. Cook for another hour.

  5. Strain again.

  6. Discard the bones and meat.

  7. Add salt to taste.

Add vegetables and rice

  1. Add the onion, carrot, and turnip.

  2. Cook until the vegetables are tender.

  3. Remove the vegetables for a salad.

  4. Let the broth cool to take off the fat.

  5. Take 1 pint of the jelly.

  6. Add the rice.

  7. Cook gently until the rice is tender.

  8. Add minced parsley just before serving, 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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + carrottop 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

Mutton shank
Bones and connective tissue release gelatin, giving the broth body and a jelly-like set.
Rice
Releases starch as it cooks, softening and slightly thickening the consommé.
Onion
Adds aromatic depth and subtle sweetness to the broth as it simmers.
Carrot
Contributes gentle sweetness and aroma to the broth during cooking.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the broth as it cooks.

The step that matters

Let the broth cool to take off the fat.. Fat floats to the surface and solidifies as the broth cools, so it can be lifted off cleanly. Skimming while the broth is still hot leaves fat dispersed and makes the consommé cloudy and greasy.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, flour, onion, carrot, turnip, rice):

  1. Turmericfits about as well
  2. Celeryfits about as well
  3. Cuminfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, flour, onion, carrot, turnip, rice. 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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