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Clear, Pale Gravy Soup or Coxsomm&

A clear, pale soup made with ham, veal, beef, and vegetables, simmered for several hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Clear, Pale Gravy Soup or Coxsomm&

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the meat

  1. Melt butter in a deep stewpan or soup pot.

  2. Add the ham, veal, and beef.

  3. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the meat is amber-colored.

  4. Add the bones.

Make the soup

  1. Gradually pour in the boiling water.

  2. Skim off any scum that rises.

  3. Add a pint of cold water to help clear it.

  4. Add salt, onions, carrots, turnips, celery, herbs, cloves, and white pepper.

  5. Let the soup simmer gently for 5.5 to 6.5 hours.

  6. Strain the soup through a fine cloth in a sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Once cooled, remove any fat from the surface.

  2. Heat the desired amount in a clean pan.

  3. Adjust seasoning with salt.

  4. Add chili or cayenne vinegar, or sauces if desired.

  5. Serve with fried bread sippets.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 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

Veal
Breaks down during long simmering to give the broth body and a rich, savory depth.
Lean beef
Releases flavor and gelatin into the broth during long simmering, adding richness and body.
Ham
Adds savory, salty depth and aroma to the broth as it simmers.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic flavor as they cook down into the broth.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and aromatic depth to the simmering broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum and simmering gently. Rising scum and a rolling boil cloud the broth with emulsified fat and protein particles. Skimming early and keeping the simmer gentle lets the soup stay clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, beef, onion, carrot, turnip, celery):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, beef, onion, carrot, turnip, celery. 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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