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Clear Soup

A clear beef broth made with stock, finely chopped beef, vegetables, egg whites, and seasonings, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Clear Soup

Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Clear Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Ensure the stock is cold and free from fat.

Clarify and simmer

  1. In a clean, well-tinned stewpan, combine the stock, vegetables, seasonings, crushed egg shells, and whipped egg whites.

  2. Whisk together over gentle heat until just boiling.

  3. Let it simmer for about 1 hour.

  4. Strain through a clean, dry cloth.

Finish

  1. Reheat the soup.

  2. Season to taste before serving.

  3. Optionally, add a glass of sherry, 2 teaspoons of French vinegar or lemon juice, and a pinch of castor sugar when reheating.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,021 recipes

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

  5. Celery + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,422 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites and shells
Whipped whites and crushed shells collect cloudiness and impurities as the soup heats, clarifying the broth.
Lean neck of beef
Its lean protein is drawn into the egg raft, adding body and flavour to the clarified broth.
Brown stock
Forms the base of the soup, supplying most of its savoury flavour and body.

The step that matters

Gentle heating during the egg raft stage. Whisking over gentle heat until just boiling lets the egg proteins coagulate into a raft that traps particles. Vigorous boiling breaks up the raft and leaves the soup cloudy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Turnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, carrot, celery, allspice, clove. 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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