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Consomme of Fresh Vegetable Roots

A clear soup made from carrots, onions, parsley, thyme, shallot, celery, butter, water, peas, lettuces, dried peas, white haricots, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Consomme of Fresh Vegetable Roots

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the base

  1. In a stewpan, combine sliced carrots, onions, parsley, thyme, shallot, celery, and butter.

  2. Cook gently until the mixture turns red.

Simmer and strain

  1. Add water and bring to a boil, skimming off any foam.

  2. Stir in peas and lettuces.

  3. Add salt, whole pepper, nutmeg, cloves, dried peas, and white haricots.

  4. Simmer for 3 hours at 300°F (150°C), skimming off grease.

  5. Strain the mixture through a cloth and set aside for use.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  5. Thyme + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour through the cooking of the vegetables.
Carrots
Provide sweetness and colour, turning the mixture red as they cook gently.
Onions
Add savoury depth and sweetness as they soften and brown slowly in the pan.
Dried peas
Thicken the liquid and add body and a earthy, starchy flavour during the long simmer.
White haricots
Contribute starch that thickens the broth and gives it a fuller texture.
Lettuces
Add a mild, fresh vegetable flavour to the broth during simmering.

The step that matters

Skimming during the simmer. Foam and grease rise to the surface and, if left in, cloud the liquid and taste heavy. Regular skimming keeps the consommé clear and clean-flavoured.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, onion, parsley, thyme, shallot, celery, butter):

  1. Lentilsfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Black-eyed peafits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, onion, parsley, thyme, shallot, celery, butter. 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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