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A clear beef consommé with vegetables, egg whites, and watercress.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 8,053 recipes mention both. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, soy (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: butter

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. In a stewpan, layer the sliced onions, carrots, and turnip at the bottom.

  2. Add the beef pieces on top of the vegetables.

  3. Cook gently on the stove for 1 hour.

  4. Add 4 quarts of water and bring to a boil, skimming off any scum that rises.

  5. Once free of scum, add soy sauce, sweet herbs, parsley, and seasoning.

  6. Let it simmer gently for 3 hours.

Make the garnish

  1. Lightly butter a tin mold and add the egg whites.

  2. Cover the mold with paper and place it in a stewpan with boiling water.

  3. Cook until the egg whites are firm, then cut into small squares and keep warm.

  4. Blanch the watercress leaves in boiling water for 1 minute, then drain.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the soup through a fine cloth and remove any remaining fat.

  2. Allow the soup to boil, then pour it into a tureen.

  3. Add the egg whites and blanched watercresses, and serve immediately.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together8,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + watercresstop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Beef + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,091 recipes

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

  5. Onion + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21,599 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Gives the consommé its meaty flavour and body as it simmers in the water.
Egg whites
Set firm when cooked and form the garnish; in the clarifying process they help trap impurities.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth to the stock as they cook slowly.
Carrots
Contribute sweetness and aroma to the stock.
Turnip
Adds subtle sweetness and earthy aroma to the stock.
Watercress
Adds a fresh, peppery aroma and a bright green note to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum after the water comes to a boil. If the stock is allowed to boil hard or scum is left in, the broth turns cloudy and loses its clarity, so it should be kept at a gentle simmer and skimmed carefully.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, parsley, sauce, watercress, egg):

  1. Potatobetter flavor fit
  2. Horseradishbetter flavor fit
  3. Parsnipbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, parsley, sauce, watercress, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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