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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 strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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

Prepare the soup

  1. Rub a deep stewpan or soup pot with butter.

  2. Add the ham, veal, and beef, and cook over medium heat until browned, stirring frequently.

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

  4. Skim off any scum that rises and add a pint of cold water as needed.

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

  6. Simmer gently for 5 to 6.5 hours.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the soup through a fine cloth in a sieve.

  2. Once cooled, remove any fat from the surface.

  3. Reheat the desired amount in a clean pan, adding salt and vinegar if needed.

  4. Serve with fried bread sippets or cooked pasta.

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 during long simmering to give the broth body and a rich, savory flavor.
Lean beef
Browning and long simmering build deep meaty flavor and savory depth in the broth.
Ham
Browning adds savory, roasted flavor that carries into the finished broth.
Onions
Softening and simmering release sweetness and aromatic depth into the broth.
Carrots
Release natural sweetness and body into the broth during slow simmering.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as the broth heats. Removing it early keeps the soup clear and clean-tasting; if left to cook back in, it clouds the liquid and can add off flavors.

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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