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To Clarify Soup Stock

A clarified soup stock made from veal, beef, vegetables, and seasonings, clarified with egg white and eggshell.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

To Clarify Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Clear the stock

  1. Remove fat from the stock and add the slightly beaten egg white and crushed eggshell.

  2. Place the mixture on the fire and stir constantly until it boils.

  3. Boil for 2 minutes, then simmer gently for 20 minutes.

  4. Add a tiny bit of ice or a little cold water to remove scum.

  5. Strain through double thickness of wet cheesecloth placed over a fine strainer.

Season and finish

  1. If the stock is not sufficiently seasoned, add additional seasoning before clearing.

  2. For a deeper color, add a little caramel or other flavorings.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  4. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 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

Knuckle of veal
Gives the stock body and gelatin for a richer mouthfeel.
Beef shin
Adds meaty depth and savory flavor to the stock.
Egg white
Clarifies the stock by trapping suspended particles as it heats, leaving it clear.

The step that matters

Stirring until it boils. The egg white and eggshell must be stirred into the stock as it heats so they form a raft that traps cloudiness. Stirring too late or not at all leaves the stock murky.

“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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