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Soup

To Clear Soup

A method for clarifying soup using egg whites and crushed shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

To Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a large pot, combine the cold stock, chopped beef, diced carrot, turnip, and leek.

  2. Place over medium heat, stirring continuously until it boils.

  3. Once boiling, reduce heat and let it simmer gently for 30 minutes.

  4. Strain the mixture through fine cloth and flannel.

Clarify and strain

  1. To clarify with eggs, stir the egg whites and crushed shells into 3 quarts of cold soup.

  2. Heat over medium heat and boil for 10 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and let it stand for 10 minutes before straining through a flannel bag.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

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

  5. Beef + leektop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together659 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw lean beef
Its proteins and flavour compounds enrich the stock, and it helps clarify the broth as it cooks.
Egg whites
As they cook they trap suspended particles, which then strain out, leaving the soup clear.
Cold stock
Forms the liquid base, and starting cold lets the flavours and proteins release gradually as it heats.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg whites into the cold soup before heating. The whites must be fully mixed in while the soup is cold so they disperse evenly. As the soup heats, the proteins coagulate and gather impurities into a raft, which is then strained out. Boiling too vigorously can break up the raft and cloud the soup.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, turnip, leek, egg):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, turnip, leek, egg. 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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