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Clear Soup

A clear beef broth made with roast beef bones, water, vegetables, and seasonings.

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

Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the bones into small pieces.

  2. Place bones in a saucepan with water.

Simmer

  1. Simmer for at least 5 hours, removing scum as it rises.

  2. Cut carrot, turnip, leek, and onion and tie them in a muslin bag.

  3. Add the bag to the soup and simmer for another hour.

Finish

  1. Remove fat if using immediately, or cool and remove later.

  2. Clarify the soup and serve.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 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

Bones from roast beef
Release meaty flavor and gelatin into the water as they simmer, giving body to the broth.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth.
Turnip
Contributes mild sweetness and earthy background flavor.
Leek
Adds a delicate onion-like aroma without cloudiness.
Onion
Provides savory aroma and depth as it softens in the liquid.

The step that matters

Skimming scum while simmering. A rolling boil emulsifies fat and churns coagulated proteins into the liquid, making the broth cloudy. Keeping it at a gentle simmer and skimming the scum as it rises keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, turnip, celery, leek, pepper):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, turnip, celery, leek, 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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