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Consomme, or Jelly Soup

A clear beef and fowl broth simmered for hours, strained and optionally set into jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Consomme, or Jelly Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, combine cold water, beef, fowl, carrots, onions, leeks, and sweet herbs. Add cloves, salt, and pepper.

  2. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer for 8 hours, skimming off any foam.

Strain

  1. Strain the soup through a fine sieve.

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

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Leek + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together759 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef steaks
Releases flavour and gelatin into the broth during the long simmer, giving body and depth.
Fowl
Adds savoury richness and gelatin to the broth as it simmers.
Leeks
Contribute gentle sweetness and aroma to the clear broth.
Carrots
Add subtle sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aroma as they cook down in the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming off the foam during the simmer. Foam carries proteins and impurities that cloud the broth if left to mix back in. Skimming as it rises keeps the consommé clear, and a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil keeps the liquid from churning and clouding.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, onion, leek, parsley, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, onion, leek, parsley, 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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