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Consomme with Poached Eggs

A clear beef consommé served with poached eggs.

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 cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Consomme with Poached Eggs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Combine beef, carrots, chicken, turnip, ham, salt, water, parsley, celery, and pepper in a large pot.

  2. Boil for about 6 hours, skimming regularly.

  3. Strain the broth and let it cool overnight.

  4. Remove any fat from the surface.

Clarify and serve

  1. If the broth is not clear, boil again with the whites of 2 eggs, whipped, and crushed egg shells.

  2. Strain through a flannel cloth dipped in ice water.

  3. Serve the clear broth with poached eggs.

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

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

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef from round
Releases gelatin and savory flavor into the broth as it simmers slowly.
Eggs
Whites trap particles as they cook, clarifying the broth; whole eggs are also served poached.
Chicken
Adds body and savory depth to the broth during the long simmer.
Carrots
Contribute gentle sweetness and aromatic flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Keep the broth at a gentle simmer and skim it regularly. Vigorous boiling emulsifies fat and breaks up particles into the liquid, leaving it cloudy. Gentle simmering and regular skimming keep the broth clear and free of impurities.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, chicken, ham, parsley, celery, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, chicken, ham, parsley, celery, pepper. 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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