Skip to main content
Drink

Consomme a LA Dubarry

A consommé à la Dubarry is a custard consommé with Jordan almonds, cauliflower buds, and rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Rice and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Consomme a LA Dubarry

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Mix whole eggs and yolks with stock to prepare a royal custard.

  2. Strain the custard into a basin.

  3. Add blanched and finely shredded Jordan almonds.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

  5. Pour the mixture into a well-buttered mold.

  6. Cover with buttered paper.

  7. Place the mold in a saucepan of boiling water.

  8. Steam gently for 20 minutes until set.

  9. Let cool.

Prepare the garnish

  1. Turn out onto a board.

  2. Cut into small cubes.

  3. Cook a handful of small cauliflower buds in salted water.

  4. Strain the cauliflower buds.

  5. Wash the rice.

  6. Blanch the rice.

  7. Cook the rice.

  8. Dry the rice.

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. Rice + chickentop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Almond + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

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

  3. Almond + cauliflowertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together19 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cauliflower + ricetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together54 recipes

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

  5. Cauliflower + chickentop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together112 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Whole eggs
Set the custard, giving it a firm, sliceable structure.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help the custard set smoothly and tender.
Stock
Thins the egg mixture to a custard that sets gently with moisture.
Jordan almonds
Add flavour and a little texture within the set custard.
Cauliflower
Provides a mild vegetable flavour and tender texture as the garnish.
Carolina rice
Adds a light, separate-grained texture to the garnish.

The step that matters

Steam gently for 20 minutes until set. Egg custard turns grainy, watery, or holey if it boils or cooks too fast. Gentle heat lets the proteins coagulate evenly, giving a smooth, firm custard that can be cut cleanly into cubes.

Swap the cauliflower

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, almond, rice, chicken):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Welsh onionfits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, almond, rice, chicken. 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

Rice WaterRice Water82 recipesRice MilkRice Milk37 recipesAlmond MilkAlmond Milk18 recipesGround Rice MilkGround Rice Milk7 recipes