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Clear Gravy Soup

A clear beef soup made with beef, bones, ham, vegetables, gelatin, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Clear Gravy Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat and onions

  1. Cut the beef into dice and slice the onions.

  2. Fry the onions in some dripping until brown, then remove them.

  3. Fry the beef in the same fat until it has a thick brown coat.

  4. Drain the beef from the fat and place it in a soup kettle with 2 quarts of cold water.

  5. Bring to a boil over about an hour.

  6. Fry the bones and add them to the pot with the meat.

  7. Once boiling, skim the surface, add 3 quarts of cold water, and simmer gently for 4 hours.

Make the vegetable liquid

  1. Chop the herbs and vegetables, including the fried onions, and boil them in enough cold water to cover.

  2. Boil and skim the soup, then strain the vegetable liquid into it without squeezing.

Finish and clarify

  1. Bring to a boil again, skim well, and add the gelatin that has soaked in cold water for 1 hour.

  2. Simmer for 5 minutes and then pour out.

  3. Strain the soup half an hour before serving, season, and return to the pot.

  4. If the color is not satisfactory, burn 1 tablespoon of sugar, add 3-4 spoonfuls of boiling water, stir, and add to the soup.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 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 main meaty flavour and body of the broth as it simmers.
Bones
Release gelatin and savoury depth into the broth during long simmering.
Gelatine
Sets into a light body that gives the finished soup a clear, jelly-like texture.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth.
Celery
Adds savoury aroma and background flavour to the stock.
Turnips
Contribute mild sweetness and earthy flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the surface while boiling. Coagulated proteins and fat rise to the surface as the liquid heats. Removing them keeps the soup clear and free of greasy, cloudy particles.

Swap the turnip

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

  1. Tomatofits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Turnipthe original
  4. Parsnipfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, ham, carrot, celery, pepper. 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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