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Soup

Consommé Aux Fine Herbs

A clear consommé made from beef stock and finely chopped herbs, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Consommé Aux Fine Herbs

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the consommé

  1. Bring the beef stock to a simmer in a large pot.

  2. Add the chopped herbs and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Simmer for 30 minutes, then strain through a fine sieve.

Serve

  1. Serve hot as a clear soup.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together774 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Chervil + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together201 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef stock
Provides the main liquid and savory flavor base of the soup.
Mixed herbs
Add aroma and fresh herbal flavor as they infuse the simmering stock.

Swap the chervil

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, parsley, thyme, pepper):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Rosemaryfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Chervilthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, parsley, thyme, pepper. 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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