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Consomme

A clear broth made by simmering beef, vegetables, and egg white, then straining.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Consomme

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Finely scrape or chop the beef.

  2. Clean and cut the vegetables into small pieces.

  3. Remove all fat from the stock, which should now be jelly-like.

Clarify

  1. In a stewpan, combine the stock, scraped meat, beaten egg white, broken egg shell, and vegetables.

  2. Stir over heat until just boiling, then let it boil well until clear.

Strain

  1. Prepare a clean cloth on a soup stand, pouring boiling water through it to warm it.

  2. Gently pour the stewpan contents onto the cloth and let it strain slowly twice.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Its scraped meat binds to impurities so they can be lifted out, clearing the stock.
Egg white and shell
The beaten white and shell collect fine particles as they cook, leaving the consommé clear.
Stock
Forms the flavorful liquid base that is clarified into a clear broth.

The step that matters

Stir over heat until just boiling, then let it boil well until clear. Stirring until the mixture just reaches a boil keeps the egg white raft forming evenly. Letting it boil gently rather than vigorously lets the raft trap particles, so the liquid clears without breaking up.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, egg, carrot, onion):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, carrot, onion. 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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