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Our or Russian Soup

A hearty soup made with veal knuckle, raw ham, old hens, broth, vegetables, and parsley roots or parsnips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and ham are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,264 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Our or Russian Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the knuckle of veal, raw ham, and old hens in a stockpot.

  2. Fill the pot with common broth and bring to a boil.

  3. Skim the surface and add the usual vegetables and parsley roots or 2 parsnips.

  4. Boil for five hours, then strain the consommé.

Clarify and set aside

  1. Clarify the consommé and strain it again into a soup pot to set aside.

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. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

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

  2. Veal + parsleytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,766 recipes

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

  3. Ham + parsleytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,249 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Knuckle of veal
Contributes gelatin and body to the broth as it simmers.
Raw ham
Adds savory, salty depth to the broth.
Old hens
Release flavor and collagen into the broth during long simmering.
Parsley roots or parsnips
Add sweetness and an aromatic earthy flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the surface before the long boil. Skimming removes coagulated proteins and fat that would otherwise cloud the consommé and make its flavor greasy. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil also helps it stay clear.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham):

  1. Celeryfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Pepperfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham. 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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