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Clear Soup

A clear beef broth made by simmering beef, onion, celery, herbs, and spices for hours, then skimming fat and straining.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Clear Soup

Why it works: Thyme and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,485 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Cut the beef into small pieces.

  2. Add the beef to the cold water in a large pot.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil gradually.

  4. Skim off any foam.

  5. Reduce heat to maintain a very slight boil for 8 hours.

  6. Strain the broth through a colander.

  7. Let the strained broth cool overnight.

Clarify and flavour

  1. In the morning, skim off all the fat from the surface.

  2. Pour the broth into a soup kettle, leaving sediment behind.

  3. Add the onion, celery, parsley, thyme, savory, sage, bay leaves, peppercorns, and cloves.

  4. Boil gently for 10 to 20 minutes.

  5. Strain through a clean cloth or napkin.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Thyme + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,485 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Parsley + sagetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Releases flavour and gelatin into the water during long simmering, giving the broth body.
Cold water
Extracts flavour from the beef gradually when started cold and heated slowly.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth.
Celery
Contributes a fresh, savoury aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Keep the simmer very slight. A hard boil emulsifies fat and clouds the broth, while a gentle simmer keeps impurities loose so they can be skimmed and the broth stays clear.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery, parsley, thyme, sage, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, parsley, thyme, sage, clove. 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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