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Consomme Aux Pates D’ltalie

A clear veal and beef consommé served with boiled Italian pasta and grated Parmesan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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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 Aux Pates D’ltalie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Cut the veal and beef into 2‑inch squares.

  2. Scald the giblets.

  3. In a large stewpan, melt the butter and add the onions, meat, and bones. Cook on low heat until glazed.

  4. Moisten with ½ pint of common stock, then add 2½ pints of hot water and ¼ ounce of salt.

  5. Bring to a boil, skimming as needed.

  6. Add carrots, turnips, leeks, parsley, and bouquet garni.

  7. Simmer for 3½ hours.

  8. Strain the broth.

  9. Let it cool.

  10. Remove fat.

Clarify and serve

  1. Clarify with raw beef and egg.

  2. Blanch the Italian pasta, drain, and simmer in broth for 15 minutes.

  3. Drain again and place in a soup tureen.

  4. Pour the hot consommé over the pasta and serve with grated Parmesan.

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 + 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. Onion + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 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

Veal stock meat
Gives the broth its deep, meaty flavour as it simmers.
Beef gravy meat
Adds rich beef flavour and body to the broth.
Veal bones
Release gelatin during long simmering, giving the broth body and mouthfeel.
Raw beef
Its proteins bind impurities during clarifying, leaving the consommé clear.
Egg
Egg whites help trap particles during clarifying, making the broth clear.
Italian pasta
Provides starchy bulk and texture to the soup once simmered in the broth.

The step that matters

Clarify with raw beef and egg. Clarifying traps fine particles in a raft that rises as the broth gently heats. If the broth boils hard or is stirred through the raft, it turns cloudy instead of clear.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, meat, beef, butter, onion, turnip, leek):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, meat, beef, butter, onion, turnip, leek. 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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