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Soup

ConsoMME Soup

A clarified meat broth made from old chicken and lean beef, simmered with vegetables and herbs and thickened with sago.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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ConsoMME Soup

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 ↓

ConsoMME Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into strips and joint the chicken.

  2. Slice the onion, turnip, and carrots; chop the herbs.

  3. Combine all ingredients in a large pot with the cold water.

Make the stock

  1. Cook slowly for six hours.

  2. Remove the chicken and beef; season with salt and pepper and place in a jar.

  3. Strain the soup, pressing the vegetables through a colander.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour half of the soup over the meat in the jar and cook covered in hot water for two more hours.

  2. Heat the remaining soup, skim off fat, add the sago, and simmer for half an hour.

  3. Once the two hours have passed, pour the stock into a bowl and cool it on ice.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Chicken + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  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

Chicken
Gives body and savory flavor to the stock as it cooks slowly for hours.
Lean beef
Contributes meaty flavor and gelatin-rich depth to the clear stock.
Sago
Thickens the soup slightly as its starch swells and gelatinizes when simmered.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the stock during long cooking.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and color to the stock as they cook.

The step that matters

Strain the soup gently. Pressing the vegetables through a colander pushes fine particles into the liquid, which can cloud the stock. A clear consommé depends on letting the broth drip through without forcing solids into it.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, beef, onion, carrot, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, beef, onion, carrot, pepper. 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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