Skip to main content
Soup

Fish Consomme

A clear fish broth made from fish bones, vegetables, and clarified with egg whites, served with fried bread squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Fish Consomme

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fish stock

  1. Melt butter in a stewpan and add fish bones, onion, carrot, bay leaf, thyme, parsley, and peppercorns.

  2. Simmer for 20 minutes.

  3. Strain through muslin into a vessel.

  4. Let cool to separate the butter.

  5. Add 2 quarts of water to the strained liquid.

Clarify the stock

  1. Whisk egg whites in a bowl.

  2. Gradually add a glass of water to the egg whites.

  3. Combine the egg mixture with the fumee in a stewpan and stir continuously until boiling.

  4. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

  5. Strain through muslin and store in a cool place.

Finish and serve

  1. Whisk together egg yolks, arrowroot, cream, salt, pepper, and Madeira in a stewpan.

  2. Pour in the clarified fumee and bring to a boil while whisking continuously.

  3. Strain into a soup tureen.

  4. Serve with fried bread squares.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Thyme + arrowroottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together72 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Parsley + arrowroottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish bones (in the method)
Give the stock its core fish flavor and body.
Egg whites
Trap cloudy particles as they set, clearing the stock into a transparent consommé.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the finished consommé, adding body and a silkier mouthfeel.
Arrowroot
Thickens the liquid slightly so the finished consommé has a light body.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and a rich, fortified aroma to the finished consommé.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, rounder mouthfeel to the yolk mixture.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg white mixture until boiling. Stir continuously while heating so the egg whites do not clump or scorch on the base. As they warm they coagulate and gather cloudy particles into a raft, which is what clears the stock. Once the raft forms, simmer gently and do not stir again, so the clarified liquid stays clear.

Swap the arrowroot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (whiting, egg, butter, onion, carrot, thyme, parsley):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Arrowrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against whiting, egg, butter, onion, carrot, thyme, parsley. 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

Indian 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 recipesCream of Asparagus SoupCream of Asparagus Soup42 recipes