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Clear Soup

A clear beef broth with finely chopped beef, carrot, turnip, leek, peas, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Clear Soup

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 ↓

Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove all fat from the stock and pour the stock into a stewpan.

  2. Trim the fat and skin from the gravy beef, chop it finely, and add it to the stewpan.

  3. Wash the carrot, turnip, and leek in cold water.

  4. Scrape the carrot clean and slice it. Peel the turnip and cut it into small pieces. Chop the leek finely after removing the green leaves and roots.

Cook

  1. Add all the vegetables to the stewpan and stir well with a spoon.

  2. Place the stewpan on the fire and stir until it boils.

  3. Skim off any impurities that rise to the surface.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Leek + peastop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together249 recipes

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

  5. Carrot + peastop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,994 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Gravy beef
Releases flavour and body into the stock as it simmers.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the soup.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and colour to the clear broth.
Leek
Contributes a mild onion-like aroma to the stock.

The step that matters

Skimming impurities as it boils. Impurities and fat that rise during heating cloud the broth if left in. Skimming them as the stock comes to a boil keeps the soup clear.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

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