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Clear, Pale Gravy Soup or Consommé

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 Consommé

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Rub a deep stewpan or soup pot with butter.

  2. Add the ham, veal, and beef, and cook over medium heat until browned, stirring frequently.

  3. Add the bones.

  4. Gradually pour in the boiling water.

Simmer and skim

  1. Skim off any scum that rises to the surface. Add a pint of cold water to help.

  2. When no more scum appears, add the salt, onions, carrots, turnips, celery, herbs, cloves, white pepper, and mace.

  3. Let the soup boil gently for 5.5 to 6.5 hours.

Strain and serve

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

  2. Once cold, remove all fat from the top.

  3. Reheat the required amount.

  4. Add salt and a few drops of chili or cayenne vinegar if desired.

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 into gelatin during long simmering, giving the consommé body and a silky mouthfeel.
Beef
Adds deep meaty flavour and gelatin to the stock during the long, gentle simmer.
Ham
Contributes savoury, salty depth to the stock as it browns and simmers.
Onions
Caramelise slightly and add sweetness and aromatic depth to the clear broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the stock heats. Removing it as it forms keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting; leaving it cloud the liquid and flavour.

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.

More consommé recipes

Chicken 21Veal 18Soup 15Vegetable 11Rice 8Custard 7 See all 50 →

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