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Clear, Pale, Gravy-soup or Stock

A clear, pale soup made from ham, veal, beef, and vegetables, simmered for hours and served with fried bread slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Clear, Pale, Gravy-soup or Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the meat

  1. In a deep stewpan or soup pot, melt butter and add the ham, veal, and beef.

  2. Cook over medium heat until the meat is amber-colored, stirring frequently to prevent sticking.

  3. Once browned, add the bones and pour in the boiling water gradually.

Simmer

  1. Skim off any scum that rises and add a pint of cold water at intervals.

  2. When no more scum appears, add salt, onions, carrots, turnips, celery, herbs, cloves, white pepper, and mace.

  3. Simmer gently for 5 to 6.5 hours.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the soup through a fine cloth in a sieve and let it cool.

  2. Remove any fat from the top and heat the desired amount before serving.

  3. Season with salt and a few drops of vinegar if needed, and serve with fried bread slices.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Breaks down into gelatin during long simmering, giving the stock body and a rich mouthfeel.
Beef
Browning and long simmering release savoury flavour compounds that give the stock depth.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty depth to the stock as it simmers for hours.
Onions
Release sugars and aromatic compounds that add sweetness and background flavour to the broth.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and earthy aroma to the broth.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savoury background notes to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim the scum before adding vegetables. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities; removing it while the liquid heats keeps the stock clear and pale. Adding cold water at intervals helps the scum rise and separate, and skimming must be finished before the aromatics go in so they do not cloud the broth.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, veal, beef, onion, carrot, turnip, celery):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, veal, beef, onion, carrot, turnip, celery. 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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