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Clear Soup

A clear beef soup made with finely chopped beef, egg white, herbs, celery seeds, mace, and stock.

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

Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the beef very finely.

  2. Beat the egg white in a bowl.

  3. Wash, peel, and chop the vegetables.

Make the soup

  1. Combine the beef, egg white, vegetables, stock, herbs tied in muslin, and spices in a clean saucepan.

  2. Whisk the mixture off the heat until well combined.

  3. Place the saucepan over moderate heat and whisk until nearly boiling.

  4. Remove the whisk, bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes or longer.

  5. Ladle the soup through a clean tea cloth to remove scum and sediment.

  6. Bring the soup to a boil again, adding a tiny lump of sugar to enhance clarity.

  7. Skim the surface well, season to taste, and serve with your choice of garnish.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the savoury meat flavour and, once cooked, the body of the soup.
Egg white
Binds to fine particles as it sets, collecting them into a raft that clarifies the broth.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the whole soup.
Vegetables (in the method)
Add aromatic depth and sweetness to the stock as they simmer.

The step that matters

Bringing the soup to nearly boiling while whisking. Whisking as the mixture heats keeps the egg white and beef dispersed so they can form a raft. If the liquid boils too early or is stirred once it has set, the raft breaks and the soup turns cloudy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, clove, beef, egg, sugar, pepper):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, clove, beef, egg, sugar, 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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