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Soup

Consomme a LA Brunoise

A clear consommé flavored with diced carrot, turnip, celery, and leek.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 a LA Brunoise

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cook the diced carrot, turnip, celery, and leek in boiling salted water until tender, then drain.

  2. Bring the clear stock to a boil in a saucepan.

  3. Add the cooked vegetables to the stock and serve.

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 + 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. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 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

Clear stock
Forms the clear liquid base and carries most of the soup's flavor.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and color, and a tender bite.
Turnip
Adds mild, slightly peppery flavor and a soft, tender texture.
Celery
Adds savory, aromatic flavor and a tender bite.
Leek
Adds a mild, onion-like aroma and sweetness when cooked.

The step that matters

Cook the diced vegetables until tender, then drain. Cooking them just until tender keeps them intact and softens their flavor without breaking them down. Overcooked vegetables fall apart and release starch and cloudiness into the stock, which spoils the clarity a consommé depends on.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, leek):

  1. Celerythe original
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, 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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