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To Clarify Drippings

A method for clarifying drippings from cooked meats using a sliced potato to remove impurities.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and mutton work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 936 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

To Clarify Drippings

Ingredients

Directions

Clarify

  1. Combine the drippings in a basin.

  2. Slice the raw potato into the drippings.

  3. Boil until the potato browns, which will remove impurities.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool.

Store

  1. Drain the clarified drippings into a clean basin and store in a cool place.

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. Meat + muttontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together936 recipes

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

  2. Meat + potatotop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together786 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Mutton + potatotop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together293 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Drippings from cooked meats
Supply the fat that is clarified and carries the flavor of the finished drippings.
Raw potato
Browns as it boils, and the browned pieces help draw impurities out of the fat.

The step that matters

Boil until the potato browns. Boiling drives off water and lets impurities settle or cling to the browning potato. Removing the heat too early leaves impurities in the fat, while overcooking can scorch it and give off a burnt taste.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, mutton):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Leekfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, mutton. 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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