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Soup

Brown Clear Soup for Gravy

A clear soup made from veal, beef, bacon, carrots, onions, and water, seasoned with salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Brown Clear Soup for Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Slice the beef and bacon, and break up the knuckle of veal.

  2. Put the meat into a large pot with the carrots, onions, and cold water.

Make the soup

  1. Cook over medium heat until the meat is tender, but do not let it brown.

  2. Add salt to taste.

  3. For brown gravy, add some color and boil for a few minutes.

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

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

  2. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

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

  4. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Veal + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of veal
Releases gelatin and flavour into the water, giving the soup body.
Lean beef
Adds meaty flavour to the broth as it cooks until tender.
Bacon
Adds smoky, savoury fat that flavours the broth.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aroma as they cook into the broth.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and colour to the soup.

The step that matters

Do not let the meat brown. Browning meat during the initial simmer changes the flavour and turns the broth darker and heavier. A clear soup stays pale and clean when the meat is gently simmered rather than seared.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Carrotthe original
  4. Chivefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, onion. 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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