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Cleak, Pale, Gravy-soup or Stock

A clear, pale soup made from ham, veal, beef, and vegetables, seasoned with herbs and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Cleak, Pale, Gravy-soup or Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the soup base

  1. Rub a deep stewpan or soup pot with butter.

  2. Add the ham, veal, and beef, and cook over medium heat until browned.

  3. Add the bones and pour in the boiling water gradually.

  4. Skim off the scum as it rises, adding a pint of cold water to help.

  5. Once the scum stops appearing, add salt, onions, carrots, turnips, celery, herbs, cloves, white pepper, and mace.

Simmer and strain

  1. Simmer gently for 5 to 6 hours.

  2. Strain the soup through a fine cloth in a sieve.

  3. Once cooled, remove any fat from the top.

Season and serve

  1. Reheat the desired amount, adding salt and vinegar or sauce to taste.

  2. Serve with fried bread snippets or cooked pasta.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,193 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Gelatin-rich connective tissue and bones release body and a rich, savoury flavour into the broth.
Lean beef
Browning and long simmering build deep, savoury meaty flavour in the stock.
Ham
Cured meat adds salty, savoury depth to the broth.
Onions
Sweetness and aromatic flavour develop as they simmer into the stock.
Carrots
Gentle sweetness and body are added to the broth during simmering.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savoury flavour to the stock during long simmering.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum as it rises. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities. Removing it early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting; if left to cook in, it clouds the stock and can add bitterness.

Swap the thyme

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits about as well
  3. Thymethe original
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, beef, onion, carrot, turnip, celery. 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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