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Transparent White Soup

A clear veal broth made by simmering veal knuckle or leg, herbs, and optional vegetables, then strained and served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,555 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Transparent White Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Cut the veal meat thinly and break the bones into pieces.

  2. Place the meat in a large pot, add the bones on top, and add the sweet herbs and mace.

  3. Pour 4 quarts of boiling water over the ingredients and cover tightly.

  4. Let it sit by the fire overnight.

Reduce and clarify

  1. The next day, transfer to a saucepan and boil gently until reduced by half.

  2. Skim off the scum and fat as it rises while boiling.

  3. Strain the liquid into a clean container and let it settle for 2–3 hours.

  4. Pour the clear liquid into a clean saucepan, adding sugar if desired.

Serve

  1. Add cooked vermicelli, carrots, French beans, or asparagus, and serve hot.

  2. Add white wine if preferred.

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. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  2. Almond + carrottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together416 recipes

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

  3. Mace + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Pepper + white winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,433 recipes

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

  5. Veal + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,015 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

Veal
Provides meat and bone flavour and body to the broth as it simmers.
Jordan almonds
Add a subtle nutty richness and slight body to the broth.
Mace
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum and fat while boiling. Scum and fat rise to the surface during the gentle boil and, if left in, make the broth cloudy and greasy. Removing them as they form keeps the liquid clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the carrot

The recipe marks carrot as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, mace, almond, pepper, sugar, white wine):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Carrotthe original
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Arrowrootfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, mace, almond, pepper, sugar, white wine. 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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