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Clear Soup

A clear broth made with stock, vegetables, and either minced beef or egg whites, strained for clarity.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Clear Soup

Why it works: Tarragon and chervil match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 824 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the clearing mixture

  1. Put the stock in a saucepan with the minced beef or egg whites and vegetables.

  2. Whisk sharply over heat until just boiling.

Simmer and strain

  1. Boil for 5 minutes, then cover and remove from heat for 10 minutes.

  2. Strain through a felt bag or coarse kitchen cloth, pouring a quart of boiling water through the cloth first.

  3. If not clear, strain a second time.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Tarragon + cherviltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together824 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Chervil + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together774 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Minced beef or egg whites
Collect fine particles and cloud-causing proteins as they coagulate, clarifying the stock.
Stock
Forms the body of the soup and carries the flavour.

The step that matters

Whisking until just boiling. Whisking the mixture while it heats keeps the clarifying proteins dispersed so they can coagulate and trap particles evenly. Boiling too vigorously or stirring afterward breaks up the raft, leaving the soup cloudy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, tarragon, chervil, parsley, pepper, beef. 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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Stock 33Beef 3 See all 53 →

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