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Clear Soup

A clear beef broth made with lean beef, stock, vegetables, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Clear Soup

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 ↓

Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pass the beef through a mincing machine, or finely chop it, and soak in enough cold water to cover for 1 hour.

  2. Place all ingredients, including unbeaten egg whites and crushed shells, in a pan and whisk until nearly boiling.

Clarify and simmer

  1. Remove the whisk and allow to boil undisturbed for 5 minutes.

  2. Simmer for 15 to 30 minutes, then remove from heat.

  3. Allow to settle for 5 minutes, then decant the clear liquid through a clean soup cloth.

Finish and serve

  1. If desired, pour sherry through the soup before serving.

  2. Reheat and serve.

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

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

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 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

Lean beef
Provides the meat flavour and is captured by the egg to clarify the broth.
Egg whites and shells
Coagulate as the broth heats, trapping fine particles so they can be strained out for a clear result.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the finished broth.

The step that matters

Remove the whisk and let it boil undisturbed. Once stirring stops, the egg white and meat particles float up and form a raft that traps cloudiness. Stirring or rolling boils break the raft and leave the broth cloudy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, parsley, beef, egg. 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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