Skip to main content
Soup

Consomme Vegetal

A clear vegetable consommé made with carrots, turnip, leek, onions, rice, barley, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Consomme Vegetal

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large pot, combine the carrots, turnip, leek, onions, rice, barley, oil, and water.

  2. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer for 45 minutes.

  3. Add more water if needed and season with salt to taste.

Finish and serve

  1. In a bowl, break the egg and remove the germ.

  2. Pour the hot broth over the egg and wait until the egg white is cooked.

  3. Stir the yolk into the broth and mix well.

  4. Garnish with fresh parsley if desired.

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

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

  3. Leek + barleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together142 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + barleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Releases starch that helps thicken the broth slightly.
Barley
Adds body and a chewy texture to the broth.
Egg
Adds richness and body as the yolk is stirred into the hot broth.
Onions
Build savory depth and sweetness as they simmer into the broth.

The step that matters

Pour the hot broth over the egg and wait until the egg white is cooked. The broth must be hot enough to cook the egg white, which sets it so it does not turn into loose strands. Pouring gently and waiting lets the white set before stirring in the yolk.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, leek, onion, rice, barley, egg):

  1. Celeryfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, leek, onion, rice, barley, 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.

You might also like

Indian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and SpinachIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and Spinach448 recipesClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd SoupClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd Soup65 recipesMock Bisque SoupMock Bisque Soup51 recipesCream of Asparagus SoupCream of Asparagus Soup42 recipes