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Clear Giblet Soup a L'irlandaise

A clear soup made from giblets, celery, leeks, and egg whites, flavored with sherry and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,093 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Clear Giblet Soup a L'irlandaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Prepare giblet broth as directed for the previous soup.

  2. Trim giblets and place in a soup pot.

  3. Skim fat from the broth's surface.

Make the consommé

  1. Whip egg whites with a little cold water and incorporate into the broth.

  2. Bring the consommé to a boil, then add sherry.

  3. Simmer gently for 20 minutes to set the eggs.

  4. Strain the consommé through a napkin onto the giblets.

Finish and serve

  1. Reserve 1 quart of the consommé in a stewpan.

  2. Boil the white parts of celery and leeks cut into 1‑inch lengths in the reserved consommé.

  3. Add the boiled vegetables to the giblets, season to taste, and serve.

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. Celery + leektop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Sherry + leektop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together61 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  3. Sherry + celerytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  4. Egg + leektop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together294 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Egg + sherrytop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Giblets
Provide the main meaty flavor for the broth.
3 egg whites
Coagulate as they heat, trapping particles so the consommé clears.
Sherry
Adds aroma and a mellow, slightly sweet flavor to the broth.
Celery
Contributes mild savory flavor and tender texture after boiling.
Leeks
Add a mild onion-like sweetness and tender texture after boiling.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after adding the egg whites. The egg whites form a raft that traps cloudy particles and clears the consommé. Vigorous boiling breaks up the raft, leaving the broth cloudy and the egg bits dispersed.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sherry, leek):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sherry, leek. 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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