Skip to main content
Main

Clear Soup

A clear broth made with stock, okra, tomato soup remnants, onion, gelatin, and Harvey's sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Clear Soup

Why it works: Okra and tomato work together. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 327 recipes. Both carry damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Remove all fat from the reserved stock and carefully pour off the liquid, leaving sediment behind.

  2. Set aside a little meat (beef and ham) for later use.

  3. Add 1 quart of boiling water to the remaining stock along with more seasoning and the okra and tomato soup remnants.

  4. Stew gently for 30 minutes.

  5. Let cool for tomorrow.

Clarify and finish

  1. Put the clear stock on the fire with a whole onion.

  2. Simmer for 30 minutes.

  3. Skim the stock well.

  4. Remove the onion.

  5. Stir in 2 tablespoons of gelatin soaked in cold water for 1 hour.

  6. Stir in 1 tablespoon of Harvey's sauce.

  7. Cook for 5 minutes.

  8. Pour out.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Okra + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Okra + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together715 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Onion + saucetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Onion and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,474 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

Gelatin
Sets the clear stock into a light body once it cools, adding a silky mouthfeel.
Okra and tomato soup remnants
Adds body, flavour and a little acidity to the stock.
Whole onion
Adds aromatic flavour to the stock while it simmers, then is removed.

The step that matters

Skim the stock well. Fat and fine particles that rise to the surface cloud the broth. Thorough skimming keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (okra, tomato, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Eggplantfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against okra, tomato, sauce. 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.

More clear soup recipes

Stock 33Beef 3 See all 53 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipesCream Tomato SoupCream Tomato Soup28 recipes