Skip to main content
Soup

Consomme Huntington

A clear beef consommé made with tough beef, shin, fowl bits, vegetables, spices, and cold water, simmered and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Consomme Huntington

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the tough beef into very small pieces.

  2. In a soup kettle, combine the beef, shin of beef, skin, bones, and bits from the boiled fowl.

  3. Add the carrot, onion, garlic, celery, parsley, peppercorns, allspice, cloves, bay leaf, thyme, and cold water.

Simmer and strain

  1. Cover and let sit on the back of the stove for 1 hour.

  2. Gradually bring to a boil, then let simmer for 2 hours.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, then strain through double cheesecloth.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Tough beef
Breaks down during long simmering to give the consommé its beefy flavor and body.
Shin of beef
Collagen-rich connective tissue that turns to gelatin, giving the broth a fuller mouthfeel.
Boiled fowl skin, bones, and bits
Adds gelatin and savory depth to the stock.
Onion
Contributes savory sweetness and aroma as it cooks into the broth.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and aroma to the stock.

The step that matters

Gradually bring to a boil, then simmer. Heating slowly and then holding a gentle simmer keeps the broth clear. A hard rolling boil breaks up particles and emulsifies fat into the liquid, leaving it cloudy.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, onion, clove, celery, parsley, allspice):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, onion, clove, celery, parsley, allspice. 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.

You might also like

Cream of CeleryCream of Celery37 recipesIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and SpinachIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and Spinach448 recipesClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd SoupClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd Soup65 recipesMock Bisque SoupMock Bisque Soup51 recipes