Why it works: Beef and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 31% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Stock, and Clear Soups
Ingredients
Directions
Make the broth
Place the meat in a large pot and cover with cold water.
Slowly bring to a boil, skimming the surface carefully.
Add the vegetables and bouquet of herbs once boiling.
Simmer for about 3 hours, then strain the broth.
Clarify and finish
To clarify, mix 1 cold cup of broth with 1 whole egg and ½ pound minced beef.
Stir well, then pour this mixture back into the strained broth.
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.
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Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef
- Provides the meat flavor and gelatin that give the broth body.
- Egg
- Its proteins coagulate during clarifying and trap impurities so the broth turns clear.
- Finely minced raw beef
- Collects fine particles from the broth as it clarifies, helping it turn clear.
The step that matters
Slowly bring to a boil, skimming the surface carefully. Heating gently and removing the foam and scum that rise keeps the broth clean and clear. Boiling hard would emulsify fat and cloud the liquid.
“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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