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Stock, and Clear Soups

A method of clarifying soup by adding beaten egg whites and broth, then heating and straining.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and coffee are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,239 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Stock, and Clear Soups

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the egg whites and shells into a basin, discarding the yolks.

  2. Beat the egg whites and shells with the broth until frothy.

  3. Mix the frothy mixture thoroughly with the cold soup.

Clarify and serve

  1. Heat the soup on the stove, stirring until it boils.

  2. Remove from heat, cover, and let it simmer for 15 minutes.

  3. Pour off the clear soup as described.

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. Egg + coffeetop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,239 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
Egg whites and shells trap cloudy particles as they set, clearing the soup.
Broth
Carries the beaten egg whites and gives the clarified soup its base flavour.

The step that matters

Heating the soup while stirring until it boils. Stirring keeps the egg white raft from sticking to the bottom and burning. Once the mixture rises, it should be left undisturbed so the raft can trap cloudy particles and leave a clear liquid beneath.

“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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