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To Clear Soup Stock

A method for clarifying soup stock by adding beaten egg whites and straining.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and barley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 568 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

To Clear Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Clarify the stock

  1. Place the stock in a saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg whites with a little water until well mixed.

  3. Add a small amount of hot stock to the egg whites and beat until frothy.

  4. Gradually pour the egg mixture into the boiling stock while beating continuously.

  5. Allow the stock to boil for a moment, then remove from heat and strain through a thin cloth.

Add optional ingredients

  1. If desired, add ½ teacup of rice, sago, or pearled barley to the soup.

  2. Boil rice for 30 minutes.

  3. Cook sago for 15 minutes.

  4. Soak barley overnight and boil until tender before adding.

  5. Break, wash, and boil vermicelli and macaroni in the soup for 30 minutes.

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. Rice + barleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together568 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Egg + ricetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,350 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Egg + barleytop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together380 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Coagulate as they heat, trapping cloudy particles so they rise and can be strained out.
Stock
Forms the base of the soup, providing all its flavour and body.

The step that matters

Pouring the egg mixture into the boiling stock. Pouring in while beating continuously keeps the egg whites dispersed so they form fine curds that clarify the stock, rather than clumping into lumps that cloud it.

“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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