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Colbert Soup

A clear consommé soup with poached eggs, seasoned with salt and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 33% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,922 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Colbert Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the eggs

  1. Heat the water in a frying pan.

  2. Add salt and vinegar.

  3. Break the eggs into the boiling water.

  4. Cover the pan with a lid.

  5. Cook for 2 minutes.

  6. Remove from heat.

  7. Check if the egg white covers the yolk; if so, the egg is done.

  8. Prepare 3 pints of tepid water in a separate dish.

Finish and serve

  1. Lift each egg with a slotted spoon.

  2. Drain the eggs.

  3. Trim the whites for an oval shape.

  4. Place the eggs in a soup tureen.

  5. Pour the boiling consommé over the eggs.

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. Egg + vinegartop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and vinegar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set into the soup as the main solid, with whites that firm when poached.
Vinegar
Helps the egg whites set quickly and hold a compact shape while poaching.

The step that matters

Check whether the egg white covers the yolk. Egg whites set progressively, so a cook who judges doneness too early leaves raw white, while overcooking makes the yolk firm. Checking the white's coverage of the yolk gives a visual cue for when the egg is set.

“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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