Skip to main content
Main

Clear, Pale Gravy Soup or Consommé

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Brown the meat

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

  2. Add the ham, veal, and beef.

  3. Cook over medium heat until browned.

  4. Add the bones.

  5. Gradually pour in the boiling water.

Simmer the soup

  1. Skim off the scum as it rises.

  2. Add a pint of cold water to help.

  3. Once the scum stops appearing, add salt, onions, carrots, turnips, celery, herbs, cloves, white pepper, and mace.

  4. 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 the fat from the top.

  3. Heat the required amount for serving.

  4. Add salt if needed.

  5. Add a few drops of chili or cayenne vinegar.

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
Gives body and savory flavor to the broth as its collagen and juices dissolve during long simmering.
Lean beef
Adds rich meaty flavor to the stock during long, gentle simmering.
Ham
Contributes salty, smoky meat flavor to the broth.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften and release flavor into the stock.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and color to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Proteins and impurities rise to the surface as the liquid heats. Removing them as they form keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting, which is the point of a clear gravy soup.

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.

You might also like

Beef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipes